He said conditions were so bad that communication with the area had been "completely lost."Īcapulco is a city of nearly 1 million people at the foot of steep mountains. 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.Ĭlimate What's the connection between climate change and hurricanes?Īcapulco, Tecpan and other towns along the Costa Grande in Guerrero were hit hard, said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. 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. "There are children back there, 2 or 3 years old, with no water, nothing." There are trees knocked down, power lines down," Campos said. "We had been waiting since 3 in the morning to get out, so we decided to walk. It was a daunting escape, but people were desperate to get out. 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. Just outside Acapulco, Flor Campos trudged for more than an hour through mud along a highway Wednesday morning before she peeled off her shoes, worried she'd lose them in the muck. ![]() Planet Money The natural disaster economistīy 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. 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.Īcapulco's Diamond Zone, an oceanfront area replete with hotels, restaurants and other tourist attractions, appeared to be mostly underwater in television footage shared online Wednesday afternoon, with boulevards and bridges completely hidden by an enormous lake of brown water. ![]() 25, 2023.ĪCAPULCO, Mexico - Hurricane Otis slammed Mexico's southern Pacific coast as a powerful and dangerous Category 5 hurricane Wednesday, unleashing massive flooding in the resort city of Acapulco, sending sheets of earth down steep mountainsides, and leaving large swaths of the state of Guerrero without power or cellphone service.
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