Acapulco remained cut off from the rest of Mexico on Wednesday morning after the powerful passage of Hurricane Otis caused severe damage to the popular Pacific resort and the surrounding area.
• Read also: Hurricane Otis weakens after making landfall near Acapulco, Mexico
“So far we have no information about loss of life, but there are no contacts,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said during his daily press conference.
The president referred to “material damage,” recalling “collapses” along the highway leading to Acapulco, and stressed that the government was trying to restore communications.
“The most important thing is to take care of the affected population. We have not yet received any damage assessments, because there are no communications,” Laura Velazquez, national civil protection coordinator, told Milenio TV.
Videos on social media show the initial physical damage.
Companies were affected, and tourists in hotels placed beds and mattresses to protect their rooms, according to these clips.
The Saffir-Simpson Category 5 hurricane made landfall overnight Tuesday into Wednesday with wind speeds exceeding 250 km/h.
France Press agency
As expected, the hurricane weakened to Category 1 as it moved northwest of Acapulco.
The government sent the ministers of defence, navy, security and communications to the site. They travel by land, as they cannot get there by plane.
“Take cover, stay in safe places: away from rivers, streams, valleys and be vigilant,” the president warned on X (former Twitter) on Tuesday evening.
At dawn on Wednesday, much of Acapulco — which has a population of about 780,000 — was without power after a precautionary outage, according to local media.
The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE, public) indicated that it restored power on Wednesday to 40% of the 504,000 affected users in the Acapulco area.
On Wednesday morning, the governor of the state of Guerrero (southwest), Evelyn Salgado, insisted to the residents of the state of Guerrero (southwest): “I ask you not to let your guard down.”
France Press agency
In Acapulco, residents barricaded themselves in their homes after stockpiling food and water.
Hotels were 50% full, local authorities prepared hostel accommodation, while soldiers patrolled the beach.
Schools were closed by order of the Guerrero state government.
Off the Pacific coast, the hurricane gained strength within a few hours.
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Paulina, Norma, Patricia, Ingrid…
On October 9, 1997, the coastal resort of Acapulco was struck by Hurricane Paulina, killing more than 200 people and causing one of the country’s most serious natural disasters, except for the earthquake.
Last week, Hurricane Norma killed three people a little further north, in Sinaloa state. Norma made landfall twice, first on the Baja California peninsula, then in the state of Sinaloa.
Mexico is located between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and is vulnerable to hurricanes during the season, which extends from May to October and November. Dozens of depressions per year can turn into quite destructive hurricanes.
The strongest hurricane ever recorded, Patricia, in October 2015, with winds of 325 km/h, only caused material damage because it entered the region through uninhabited mountainous terrain.
In September 2013, Hurricane Ingrid in the Gulf and Tropical Storm Manuel in the Pacific simultaneously hit Mexico.
As the ocean surface temperature rises, the frequency of more intense hurricanes (or hurricanes or hurricanes depending on the region) increases, but not their total number.
According to the International Community of Climate Experts (IPCC), the proportion of particularly intense hurricanes (category 4 and 5) should increase by 10% compared to the pre-industrial era with a temperature rise of +1.5°C increasing by 30%.
It is also important to note a very important risk for the common victims of vague submersions (applied marine submersions) amplified in the oceans, which produce indations and contamination from the same areas and the world. ‘fresh water.
Because of rising sea levels and marine flooding, more than a billion people will live in vulnerable coastal cities by 2050, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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