Hurricane Otis batters Acapulco
ACAPULCO, Mexico — Hurricane Otis ripped across Mexico’s southern Pacific coast as a powerful Category 5 storm early Wednesday, tearing through buildings in the resort city of Acapulco, sending sheets of earth down steep mountainsides and leaving large swaths of the southwestern state of Guerrero without power or cellphone service.
While little is known about possible deaths or the full extent of the damage — the main highway into Acapulco was impassable — experts are calling Otis the strongest storm in history to make landfall along the Eastern Pacific Coast.
By late Wednesday afternoon, Otis had weakened to below tropical depression strength and was dissipating over the mountains, yet many on the coast were left reeling.
Flor Campos had been trudging through mud for more than an hour along a highway outside Acapulco on Wednesday morning before she peeled off her shoes, worried she’d lose them in the muck.
The domestic worker from a small town in Guerrero was among dozens of families, women and children who clambered over tree trunks and other debris left by landslides in the mountainous terrain. It was a daunting escape, but people were desperate to get out.
“We had been waiting since 3 in the morning to get out, so we decided to walk. It was more dangerous to stay. There are trees knocked down, power lines down,” Campos said.
On Tuesday, Otis took many by surprise when it rapidly strengthened from a tropical storm to a powerful Category 5 as it tore along the coast. Researchers tracking the storm told The Associated Press that the storm broke records for how quickly it intensified, at a time when climate change has exacerbated devastating weather events like this one.
“It’s one thing to have a Category 5 hurricane make landfall somewhere when you’re expecting it or expecting a strong hurricane, but to have it happen when you’re not expecting anything to happen is truly a nightmare,” said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.
Acapulco, Tecpan and other towns along the Costa Grande in Guerrero were hit hard, said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He said conditions were so bad that communication with the area had been “completely lost.”
By late Wednesday afternoon, Otis’ winds had dropped to 35 mph as the storm dissipated over the mountains of southern Mexico. Remnants of the storm were still expected to dump heavy rains on the area through Thursday, however, with the possibility of flash flooding and, in mountainous areas, mudslides, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Campos and others in Guerrero were shocked by the extent of the damage Otis had wrought during its brief visit.
“There are children back there, 2 or 3 years old, with no water, nothing,” Campos said.