Early on Wednesday, Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 hurricane, lashed the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco, damaging hotels and forcing vacationers to seek shelter as it pounded the southern Pacific coast with violent gusts and torrential rain.
As the southern state of Guerrero awoke to the chaos left in Otis’ wake, videos of rooms destroyed by the hurricane’s passage were shared on social media. Ceilings and walls were ripped open, windows were broken, and cars were partially submerged in floodwaters.
As the hurricane tore over the beachfront, debris was scattered all over lobbies, patios, streets, and hotel balconies. The storm severely disrupted phone lines, making it difficult to communicate a comprehensive picture of the devastation.
Images shared on social media suggested that Otis had partially peeled off the sides of some buildings in Acapulco.
Acapulco hotel guest Luisa Pena described how she got caught in the storm’s eye and had to hide in a closet.
“I literally started to pray,” she stated in a TikTok video. She said, “My room was completely destroyed as Otis tore through the building. Fear took hold of me to the point where all I wanted was one more chance.”
165 miles per hour (266 kph) gusts from Otis, which unexpectedly increased quickly at sea, forced nurses to evacuate patients from their rooms at one hospital, according to social media footage.
Otis, one of the worst storms to ever impact the area, weakened rapidly to a Category 4 storm after reaching the coast with a Category 5 intensity. As it went ashore, Otis’s strength decreased even further, turning it into a tropical storm.
Although there were no current reports of storm-related deaths, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador issued a warning, saying that authorities were having difficulty getting updates.
At a routine press conference held by the administration, he informed reporters that “the hurricane continues to impact the area and communications are completely down.”
According to a statement from CONAGUA, the national water agency of Mexico, Otis is still over the state of Guerrero and will continue to produce significant rainfall throughout much of the region.
Authorities in charge of public protection in Mexico said that hundreds of thousands of people were without power in Guerrero and that Otis was the reason for the cancellation of courses and suspension of flights to and from Acapulco.
Almost precisely eight years after Hurricane Patricia, which blasted up gusts of 200 miles per hour (322 kph), Mexican authorities voiced alarm at the sudden power of Otis.
Otis was blowing gusts of 60 miles per hour (97 kph) at around 12 p.m. local time (1800 GMT), 130 miles (209 km) north-northwest of Acapulco, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Authorities warned that Otis could bring dangerous surf and rip current conditions, mudslides, a “potentially catastrophic” storm surge, and up to 20 inches (51 cm) of rain to some areas of Guerrero and Oaxaca states.
A 6-to 8-meter (20- to 26-foot) wave warning was issued by CONAGUA for Guerrero and some areas of Oaxaca.
Storm shelters were set up by the government in Guerrero, and the National Guard was prepared to perform evacuations and rescues.
As soldiers monitored Acapulco’s empty beaches, Lopez Obrador stated late on Tuesday that the Defense Ministry had implemented a contingency plan ahead of the storm’s arrival.