Hurricane Otis plunges Acapulco into chaos and the number of victims it caused is still unknown

2023-10-26 06:58:02

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — A day following Hurricane Otis made landfall in Acapulco, causing massive flooding and looting, the resort city of nearly a million people was plunged into chaos: Residents have no electricity or internet as the number of victims remains uncertain.

The first images and testimonies showed enormous devastation, downed trees and power lines submerged in muddy waters that, in some areas, extended for kilometers (miles). The destruction delayed a comprehensive response by the government, which was still assessing damage along the Pacific coast, and left residents desperate.

Many of Acapulco’s once-elegant beachfront hotels looked like toothless, shattered giants a day following the Category 5 hurricane blew out hundreds — if not thousands — of windows.

Frustration towards the authorities seemed widespread. Although some 10,000 soldiers were mobilized in the area, they did not have the tools to clear the tons of mud and fallen trees from the streets. Hundreds of trucks from the government electricity company arrived in Acapulco early Wednesday, but did not know how to restore service while the downed lines were under meters (feet) of mud and water.

Jakob Sauczuk was staying with a group of friends in a beachfront hotel when Otis arrived and said that “We lay on the floor and some of us between the beds (…) We prayed a lot.”

One of his friends showed reporters pictures of the hotel’s battered rooms, which had no advantages. It looked as if someone had put the clothes, beds and furniture in a blender, leaving widespread destruction.

Sauczuk complained that the hotel had offered them no warning or a place to shelter.

Pablo Navarro, an auto worker who was temporarily staying in a top-of-the-line hotel, thought he was going to die in his room on the 13th floor.

“I took refuge in the bathroom and fortunately the door held,” he said. “But there were rooms where the wind knocked down the windows and the door.”

Navarro stood outside a grocery and home goods store near the hotel zone Wednesday as hundreds of people carried everything from hot dog packages and toilet paper to flat-screen televisions out of the muddy establishment, struggling to push the loaded metal carts onto the muddy streets.

“It’s out of control here,” he added.

Isabel de la Cruz, a resident of Acapulco, was trying to move forward with a cart loaded with diapers, instant noodles and toilet paper.

He considered it an opportunity to help his family following losing the tin roof of their house and all important documentation in the hurricane.

“When are the authorities going to look at the people?” he said.

Inside one establishment, National Guard troops allowed looters to take perishable items such as food, but made futile efforts to prevent them from taking household appliances, while outside some loaded refrigerators onto taxis.

It took authorities almost all of Wednesday to partially reopen the main highway that connects Acapulco with the state capital, Chilpancingo, and Mexico City. This allowed the arrival of dozens of emergency vehicles, personnel and trucks with supplies.

The city’s commercial and military airports were too damaged to resume flights.

Acapulco Diamante, a beachfront area full of hotels, restaurants and other tourist attractions, seemed almost completely submerged in images recorded by drones and published online by Foro TV on Wednesday followingnoon, with avenues and bridges completely hidden under a huge lake of brown water.

Large buildings had their walls and roofs completely or partially torn off. Dislodged solar panels, cars and debris littered the lobby of a particularly hard-hit hotel. People walked through waist-deep water in some areas, while in others with less water, soldiers removed fallen palm leaves and debris from the pavement.

On Wednesday night, the city was plunged into darkness. There was no phone service, but some were able to use satellite phones provided by the Red Cross to let their families know they were safe.

Alicia Galindo, a 28-year-old stylist from San Luis Potosí, in the center of the country, was one of the lucky ones who received a call. Her parents and her brother were staying at the Princess Hotel to attend an international mining conference when Otis made landfall in the city early Wednesday with winds of 270 kilometers per hour (165 miles per hour).

They told him that the worst part had been between 01:00 and 03:00 in the morning, when “windows began to fall, floors broke, mattresses flew, doors fell, walls were broken, they were literally left in the void.” “, he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Luckily, they escaped unharmed, he added.

But Galindo still had not heard from her boyfriend, who was attending the same conference but was staying in another hotel.

Otis took many by surprise Tuesday when it quickly upgraded from a tropical storm to a major hurricane as it moved toward the coast.

“It’s one thing to have a Category 5 hurricane make landfall when you expect a strong cyclone, but to have it happen when you don’t expect it to be severe is a nightmare,” said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.

The regions of Costa Grande, Acapulco and Técpan were greatly affected by the storm, said the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Wednesday morning, adding that conditions were so bad that communication with the area had been lost. “completely”.

Later in the day, the Milenio television network published images of López Obrador trying to reach the city by land, in some parts even walking. But it was not immediately clear if he succeeded.

Acapulco is at the foot of steep mountains where luxury homes and very poor neighborhoods coexist with impressive views of the Pacific. It was once a destination for Hollywood stars for its nightlife, sport fishing and cliff diving shows, but in recent years it has been taken over by organized crime, driving many foreign tourists to the Caribbean waters of Cancun and Riviera Maya or to beaches further south in the state of Oaxaca.

López Obrador recalled that Otis was a more powerful hurricane than Paulina, which devastated parts of Acapulco in 1997 and left more than 300 dead.

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Verza reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.

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