by Donald Wood
Last updated: 8:35 AM ET, Fri October 27, 2023
The Mexican government revealed that at least 27 people were
killed after Hurricane Otis made landfall on Wednesday at the popular resort
town of Acapulco, which sustained an estimated $15 billion in damages.
According to Reuters.com,
the Category 5 hurricane ripped the roofs off homes and hotels, smashed glass
windows out of resorts and residential buildings, flooded streets and left
wreckage across Acapulco.
Wind speeds reached 165 miles per hour, causing extensive
damage to some of the most famous hotels on the tourism destination’s
shoreline, which heavily depends on the travel industry to drive the local
economy.
“What Acapulco suffered was really disastrous,” Mexican President
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
Government officials revealed on Thursday that the air
traffic control tower at Acapulco International Airport had been reopened after
enduring extensive damage from the storm. An air bridge enabling tourists to
reach Mexico City reopened on Friday.
Guerrero state Governor Evelyn Salgado called Hurricane Otis
“totally devastating,” and revealed the storm hit 80 percent of the city’s hotels.
“We laid down on the floor, and some between beds. We prayed
a lot,” Jacob Sauczuk, a tourist staying at a beachfront property, told the
Associated Press. “It looked as if someone had put clothes, beds and furniture
in a blender, leaving a shredded mass.”
“I took shelter in the bathroom, and thankfully the door
held,” another guest told The AP. “But there were some rooms where the wind
blew out the windows and the doors.”
The local government was working to restore electricity,
communication and drinking water pumps.
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