(Acapulco) Eight months pregnant, Andrea Fernández is desperate to be able to contact her husband to tell him that she is safe after the passage of Hurricane Otis which devastated Acapulco and isolated the famous seaside resort on the Pacific coast in western Mexico.
“There is no network. It’s been three days since I’ve been able to contact him,” sighs Andrea. With about 20 other people, she raises her phone to the sky or searches for every possible angle in the hope of catching some coverage.
“I am desperate,” she said in tears, unable to call her husband who is serving a prison sentence elsewhere in Mexico.
Electricity and connections have been partly cut since the passage of Hurricane Otis on Wednesday shortly after midnight, which officially left 39 dead and 10 missing, according to an upwardly revised toll, in Acapulco, which has a total of 780,000 inhabitants.
The signal comes and goes unsteadily. Every call is a lottery. “There’s no way out of here!” As soon as I can, I’ll call you back. We lost everything. It’s horrible,” says a woman, speaking at full speed after finally being able to contact someone.
Those who weren’t so lucky sit on the floor before trying again, monitoring their phone’s battery level.
PHOTO HENRY ROMERO, REUTERS
From the bridge where Andrea tries to contact her husband, the young woman can see the famous Princess hotel and a golf course completely destroyed.
On the other side, dozens of people continue to help themselves in a supermarket where food and household appliances are looted under the impassive gaze of the soldiers.
Andrea says one of her neighbors walked 100 kilometers to the nearby town of Chilpancingo, carrying messages from several residents. This neighbor, however, was unable to contact her own husband in his cell several hundred kilometers further north, in the state of Jalisco.
The Acapulco-Chilpancingo-Mexico Highway of the Sun is once again passable. An airlift was put in place to evacuate tourists.
“Difficult and stressful”
PHOTO SALVADOR VALADEZ, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Acapulco building ravaged by hurricane Otis
On the same bridge, Yesenia Peñaloza tries to call her sister, who lives in the neighboring state of Michoacan, to tell her that she and her parents are fine.
“I sent text messages but who knows if they arrived,” sighs the 21-year-old young woman.
“It’s difficult and stressful” to know that your sister may not have heard from her. “Some people were lucky to find a network and get in touch with their loved ones.”
“Since Tuesday evening, we don’t know anything about my father,” said another woman who asked not to be identified.
Local television stations let Acapulco residents broadcast live messages to tell their loved ones that they were safe, or to broadcast photos of people who had not been found.
The operator Telcel indicated on Thursday that it had restored “nearly 40% of its services in Acapulco”, outside “areas without electricity, or in those where infrastructure has suffered damage”.
Incapacity
Communications within the city are even more difficult.
A tourist draws the attention of journalists to a sick person who cannot move around and who needs to be evacuated from a building damaged by the hurricane.
The patient was unable to contact his family who also lives in the port of Acapulco.
Francisco Perez, 50, seeks to speak with his mother, who also lives in Acapulco. He attacks the authorities who, according to him, should have installed “portable antennas in strategic points”.
” What can we do ? », he blurted, angrily.
Telcel, owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, announced that it was offering unlimited calls, texts and messaging until November 2 for “its users affected by Hurricane Otis.”