Hurricanes

Acapulco, Mexico — A day after Hurricane Otis roared ashore in Acapulco, unleashing massive floods and setting off looting, the resort city of nearly 1 million descended into chaos, leaving residents without electricity or internet service as the toll remained uncertain. The early images and accounts were of extensive devastation, toppled trees and power lines lying in brown floodwaters that in some areas extended for miles. The resulting destruction delayed a comprehensive response by the government, which was still assessing the damage along Mexico's Pacific coast, and made residents desperate.

Many of the once sleek beachfront hotels in Acapulco looked like toothless, shattered hulks a day after the Category 5 storm blew out hundreds - and possibly thousands - of windows.

Aftermath of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco

A view shows street stalls damaged by Hurricane Otis near the entrance to Acapulco, in the Mexican state of Guerrero on October 25, 2023. Henry Romero/Reuters

Dissatisfaction with the authorities seemed widespread. About 10,000 troops were deployed to the area but lacked the tools to clear tons of dirt and fallen trees from the streets. Hundreds of trucks from the state power company arrived in Acapulco on Wednesday morning, but it appeared unclear how to restore power as downed power lines lay in mud and water.

Jacob Sauchuk was staying with his friends at a beachfront hotel when Otis attacked. “We lay on the floor, some of us between beds,” Sauchuk said. “We prayed a lot.”

One of his friends showed reporters photos of destroyed, windowless hotel rooms. It looked as if someone had put clothes, beds and furniture in a blender and left them torn to shreds.

Sauchuk complained that his group was not warned or provided safer shelter at the hotel.

Pablo Navarro, an auto parts worker who was housed in temporary accommodation at a seaside hotel, thought he might die in his room on the 13th floor of the hotel.

“He took refuge in the bathroom, luckily the door was intact,” Navarro said. "But there were some rooms where the wind blew out the windows and the doors."

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View of the damage caused by Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, Mexico, on October 25, 2023. FRANCISCO ROBLES / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Navarro stood Wednesday outside a discount grocery and household goods store near the hotel zone, as hundreds of people wrestled everything from packs of hot dogs and toilet paper to flat screen TVs out of the muddy store, struggling to push loaded metal shopping carts onto the mud-choked streets outside.

"This is out of control," he said.

Isabel de la Cruz, a resident of Acapulco, tried to move a shopping cart loaded with diapers, instant noodles and toilet paper through the mud.

She viewed what she took as a chance to help her family after she lost the tin roof of her home and her family's important documents in the hurricane.

"When is the government ever going to look after the common people?" she said.

Inside one store, National Guard officers allowed looters to take perishable items like food but made futile efforts to prevent people from taking appliances, even as people outside loaded refrigerators on top of taxis.

It took nearly all day Wednesday for authorities to partially reopen the main highway connecting Acapulco to the state capital Chilpancingo and Mexico City. The vital ground link enabled dozens of emergency vehicles, personnel and trucks carrying supplies to reach the battered port.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador looks out the window as the vehicle he is in is stuck in mud during a visit to an area near Acapulco, Mexico after Hurricane Otis passed, on October 25, 2023.

RODRIGO OROPEZA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Acapulco's commercial and military airports were still too badly damaged to resume flights.

Acapulco's Diamond Zone, an oceanfront area replete with hotels, restaurants and other tourist attractions, looked to be mostly underwater in drone footage that Foro TV posted online Wednesday afternoon, with boulevards and bridges completely hidden by an enormous lake of brown water.

Large buildings had their walls and roofs partially or completely ripped off. Dislodged solar panels, cars and debris littered the lobby of one severely damaged hotel. People wandered up to their waists in water in some areas, while on other less-flooded streets soldiers shoveled rubble and fallen palm fronds from the pavement. On Wednesday evening, the city was plunged into darkness. There was no phone service, but some people were able to use satellite phones provided by the Red Cross to tell their families they were okay.

Alicia Galindo, a 28-year-old stylist from San Luis Potosi in central Mexico, was one of the lucky ones to receive such a call. Her parents and brother were staying at the Princess Hotel in Acapulco for an international mining conference when Otis struck the city early Wednesday morning with winds of 165 mph.

They told her that the worst moments of her storm occurred between 1 and 3 a.m. She said, “Windows started falling, floors started falling, mattresses flew, hallways collapsed, doors collapsed... Until it’s all gone,” she said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. Fortunately, they were safe, she said.

But Galindo has yet to hear from her boyfriend, who was attending the same conference but was staying at a different hotel.

Otis surprised many as it swept along the coast Tuesday, quickly strengthening from a tropical storm to a powerful Category 5 storm.

“It’s one thing to make landfall somewhere when a Category 5 hurricane is expected or a major hurricane is expected, but if it happens when you least expect anything, that’s a real nightmare,” said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher. from the University of Miami.