At least 27 people died in Acapulco, Mexico, after Category 5 hurricane Otis hit the coast on Wednesday (25), which has the capacity to knock down trees and destroy buildings and homes, in addition to causing flooding and landslides. Earth.
Four people are also missing, said Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez during a press conference this morning (26).
Mexican authorities are still working to determine the full extent of the devastation caused by Otis, which caused disruptions to communications networks, affecting emergency response and public communication.
The outages significantly limited authorities’ ability to assess or share the magnitude of Hurricane Otis’ impact. Images and videos show that damaging winds and rain left roads covered in several meters of water, buildings with broken windows and damaged infrastructure.
More than 500,000 homes and businesses lost power across the Mexican state of Guerrero, power utility CFE said Wednesday. Service has been restored to 40% of those affected, she added.
Unable to get an assessment of the damage caused by the hurricane from local authorities, Mexican government officials began traveling to Acapulco on Wednesday to assess the damage in person.
“We are going there because we do not have any communication with our colleagues who have already been there for a week in the midst of preventive work, against a tropical storm that in 12 hours turned into a hurricane”, said the National Civil Protection Coordinator, Laura Velázquez, in a statement.
Officials and residents had little time to prepare for the severity of the storm because early forecasts significantly underestimated the threat. Otis quickly intensified from a tropical storm to an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane – the strongest storm ever recorded in the area – in just 12 hours.
The hurricane quickly weakened as it headed inland. By Wednesday afternoon, it had dissipated over the mountains of southern Mexico. The storm’s heavy rains are expected to continue impacting the region through Thursday, possibly triggering flash flooding and mudslides, the National Hurricane Center said. With the immediate threat diminished, the region is recovering.
Images of the impacted area show destroyed structures full of trees and foliage uprooted, while several skyscrapers had their windows broken. Several roads were also flooded, leaving some of them wading through several meters of murky water.
In an Acapulco home, video taken during the storm shows a family sheltering under a mattress and struggling for cover as strong winds and rain pour through their broken windows.
The Mexican National Guard has been working to clear stranded vehicles, downed trees and other storm-strewn debris from roads, the agency said in a news release.
Acapulco International Airport suspended operations while it recovered from the storm, the office of Mexico’s Secretary of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport said in a statement. The agency shared images of large piles of debris dumped across the airport.
Otis’s rapid intensification is a symptom of the human-caused climate crisis, scientists say — a scenario that is becoming more frequent.
Scientists defined rapid intensification as an increase in wind speed of at least 35 mph in 24 hours or less, generally requiring significant heat from the ocean.
More than 90% of global warming over the past 50 years has occurred in the oceans, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Additionally, El Niño is growing in the Pacific this year, raising ocean temperatures even further.
Remember: Hurricane with winds of up to 270 km/h threatens Mexico’s coast
Source: CNN Brasil
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