Residents of Mexico’s once glamorous port of Acapulco and surrounding coastal towns braced for the arrival of the “potentially catastrophic” Hurricane Otis, a rapidly intensifying Category 5 hurricane that stirred memories of a 1997 storm that killed dozens of people.
“A nightmare scenario is unfolding for southern Mexico this evening with rapidly intensifying Otis approaching the coastline,” a National Hurricane Center forecaster said late Tuesday.
Hurricane Otis strengthened from a tropical storm to a dangerous Category 5 hurricane in 12 hours Tuesday as it approached Mexico’s southern Pacific coast.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Otis had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 kph) late Tuesday evening and was expected to make landfall early Wednesday near Acapulco. It was centered about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south-southeast of Acapulco and moving north-northwest at 9 mph (15 kph).
Acapulco is a city of more than 1 million people at the foot of steep mountains. Luxury homes and slums alike cover the city’s hillsides with views of the glistening Pacific.
Otis was forecast to remain a Category 5 hurricane through landfall but rapid weakening is then forecast due to the higher terrain of Mexico. Otis will likely dissipate over southern Mexico on Wednesday night.
This is an extremely serious situation for the Acapulco metropolitan area with the core of the destructive hurricane likely to come near or over that large city early on Wednesday, “ the weather service said. ”There are no hurricanes on record even close to this intensity for this part of Mexico.”
In Acapulco, people hurried home as rain began to pelt the resort and winds picked up, driving tourists from the beach.
The Guerrero state government said it was preparing 396 shelters in anticipation of families being driven from their homes by wind damage or surging waters.
“We’re on maximum alert,” Acapulco Mayor Abelina López said Thursday night as she urged residents to hunker down at home or move to the city’s shelters. She said Otis could be more devastating than Hurricane Pauline that hit Acapulco in 1997, destroying swaths of the city and killing more than 200 people. Hundreds of others were injured in flooding and mudslides.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told people via the platform X, formally known as Twitter, “to go to shelters, stay in safe places away from rivers, streams, ravines and be alert, without being overconfident.”
( Source AP)
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