ACAPULCO, Mexico, Oct 30 (Reuters) – The death toll from Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 storm that battered the Mexican Pacific resort city of Acapulco last week, has risen to nearly 100, authorities in Guerrero state said on Monday.
Otis lashed Acapulco with winds of 160 mph (266 km/h) on Wednesday, flooding the city, ripping roofs off homes, hotels and other businesses, submerging vehicles and disrupting communications, road and air links.
Looting broke out as the city’s population of nearly 900,000 people increasingly needed food and water.
Evelyn Salgado, governor of Acapulco’s home state of Guerrero, said 45 people were confirmed dead and another 47 were missing, citing figures from state prosecutors.
On Sunday afternoon, Mexico’s federal civil protection authorities reported 48 dead, including 43 in Acapulco and five in nearby Coyuca de Benitez.
The dead included an American citizen, a Briton and a Canadian, according to Guerrero’s government.
Fishermen and workers on tourist yachts gathered at Playa Honda in Acapulco on Sunday afternoon to search for missing colleagues and friends, worried officials weren’t doing enough.
Luis Alberto Medina, a fisherman, said he was looking for six people who worked at the port.
“It was really horrible,” Medina said. “We’ve already found the bodies of others.”
FEAR OF ATTACK
[1/5]People walk near rubble and damaged trees after Hurricane Otis, in Acapulco, Mexico, October 29, 2023. REUTERS/Quetzalli Nicte-Ha/File Photo License Rights Acquired
Governor Salgado provided an update by phone with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who during a regular government press conference called on local authorities to ensure that essential goods are delivered to the population of Acapulco.
The cost of damage from the hurricane could be as high as $15 billion, according to estimates, and Mexico has sent about 17,000 members of the armed forces to maintain order and help distribute tons of food and supplies in Acapulco.
ATMs were also hit in the city.
Two service points will be set up at Armed Forces Development Bank branches in Acapulco for people to withdraw cash, the finance ministry said on Monday.
Access to food and water remains a challenge.
A line of about 150 people waiting for water provided by local authorities wound through the muddy streets of the La Frontera neighborhood on Sunday afternoon, as residents holding empty water containers bemoaned the long wait.
“Look how many of us there are,” said one of them, Emilia Rojas, looking around desperately. “There are so many of us. This water will not be enough.”
On nearby Perla Street, Ruby said the long wait was inconvenient given how desperate people were.
“We have been here since dawn, since five in the morning, we risk being robbed because now they are attacking people in the streets,” she said. “Where is the government’s help?”
The disaster struck Acapulco just seven months before Mexico’s next presidential election, and López Obrador repeated his claim Monday that critics are attacking his response to Otis and inflating its impact for electoral reasons.
His fiery denunciations drew criticism that the president was downplaying the severity of the disaster.
Reporting by Jose Decavelle; Additional reporting by Dayna Beth Solomon and Isabelle Woodford; Written by Dave Graham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tomasz Janowski
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