The Mexican city was hit by Hurricane Otis overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. Winds of 260 km/h caused extensive material damage. No human toll has been communicated at this time.
“There is no communication. We don’t know what it is.” recognize Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the president of Mexico. During the night of Tuesday October 24 to Wednesday October 25, the station Acapulco seaside resort, located on the country’s Pacific coast, was literally devastated by Hurricane Otis.
The population and the authorities were surprised by the violence of this phenomenon which, in a single day, went from the category of tropical storm to that of a category 5 hurricane, the highest. Otis hit a densely populated area, but the Mexican government could not provide information on the number of deaths as roads and communications were still cut. 500,000 people are without electricity.
Waist-deep water and ruined buildings
The coastal avenue was completely flooded, the beach restaurants were nothing more than a pile of rubble and the facades of the hotels were ravaged. Locals and tourists were seen wandering around Acapulco in waist-deep water. Torrential rains and devastating winds of 260 km/h swept through the seaside town.
A Mexican tourist posted a testimony of these moments of terror on social networks. “My hotel room was destroyed, the roof collapsed, the windows were broken. Everything was flooded, I had to take refuge in the cupboard and there I prayed”, she says. After Otis, the Acapulco region found itself completely isolated.
No human assessment drawn up at the moment
The highway that connects Mexico City to the resort and roads in the region were impassable due to falling trees and landslides. During his press conference on Wednesday October 25, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador showed frustration at not being able to establish a reliable assessment. “We have no information about the deaths, communications are cut,” he said.
In Mexico, everyone is wondering how Otis could explode in intensity so quickly. This is almost unheard of, according to hurricane specialists. The French embassy, for its part, invites its nationals to contact the “teams mobilized on site.”