At least 27 people are dead and four others are missing after powerful Hurricane Otis hit Acapulco and in its region, in southwest Mexico, the Mexican government announced Thursday.
“Unfortunately, we received a report from the state and municipal government reporting 27 deaths and four missing,” Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez said during the president’s daily press conference. Republic.
“What Acapulco experienced was very disastrous”
The death toll from the force 5 hurricane – the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson scale – rose from 18 to 27 deaths overnight, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
The latter was able to arrive on site Wednesday evening, after a complicated journey due to landslides on the road. He claims to have completed the journey on foot, in the mud. “What Acapulco experienced was very disastrous,” he insisted. “This has no precedent in the country in recent times.”
A thousand state agents will go to the site to carry out a “house by house” census of the damage caused by the hurricane which made landfall on Wednesday shortly after midnight (06:00 GMT) with winds of up to 260 km/h and gusts to 315 km/h, according to the government. Otis had formed within hours off the Pacific coast.
“We are working to restore communications”
“We are working to restore communications,” added the president. Thursday morning Acapulco was once again accessible by road, and the internet connection was restored in places, AFP noted.
According to the authorities, a convoy carrying humanitarian aid left by road – the airport remaining closed – for Acapulco, a city of around 780,000 inhabitants some 400 km from Mexico City.
“Acapulco has collapsed,” assured AFP Eric Hernandez, 24, who was returning on foot to his neighboring village after accompanying a relative to a clinic where he was at the time of the hurricane’s impact. “The stores were all looted, people were fighting over the items.”
According to other accounts, a swollen river and collapsed bridges are isolating communities near Acapulco. “A lot of people got stuck on the other side in our village, the flood was strong,” said Israel Perez, a 21-year-old baker. “People are homeless, there is no electricity.”
Hotels and shopping centers reduced to their cement structure
The hurricane also affected tourists and visitors. “I hope someone from my family sees me so they know I’m okay,” Mexican tourist Nely Palacios told the Televisa channel. Tourists used mattresses and beds to protect themselves in their hotels after the windows were broken. “We protected ourselves with barricades made by children, women, men,” she continued, “many were injured by broken glass.”
The first images showed luxury hotels and shopping centers reduced to their cement structures, as well as scenes of looting. The windows of the iconic Princess Hotel were shattered and the building was partially destroyed, according to a video circulating on social media. “The material damage is devastating. We have no water, no light, but we are safe and sound,” the administrator of a tourist residence, Citlali Portillo, told Televisa. “The building was moving like it was an earthquake!” »
The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE, public) indicated that it had restored power on Wednesday to 40% of the 504,000 users affected in the Acapulco region.
Mexico already in mourning by Norma
After making landfall, the hurricane weakened as expected as it progressed into the hinterland. But heavy rains persisted in the states of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, and Oaxaca, two of the poorest in the country. On October 9, 1997, Acapulco was hit by Hurricane Paulina, causing the deaths of more than 200 people and one of the country’s most severe natural disasters, aside from an earthquake.
Last week, Norma killed three people a little further north, in the State of Sinaloa. Open to the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico is exposed to hurricanes during the season which runs from May to October-November.