People in Mexico's Acapulco witnessed a blackout after Hurricane Otis ravaged power supply and communication in the city on Wednesday. A rare Category 5 and one of the strongest storms to ever hit Mexico's Pacific Coast made its way towards the said city while leaving nothing but destroyed infrastructure behind. Flight operations were also suspended in the region due to the fast-moving winds. According to reports, Otis strengthened from a tropical storm to an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane in just 12 hours and slammed ashore which took the people by surprise.
Hurricane Otis slammed into the Mexican coast at around 12 pm with sustained winds of 165 mph, said the National Hurricane Center, as reported by CNN.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that his government had no reports of casualties, but all communication systems in the area were down, due to which no communication was being established even with the emergency crews. President Obrador said they had reports of material damage and roads blocked by landslides.
The President has instructed the heads of Mexico’s security cabinet to move to the port of Guerrero in order to accelerate care and assistance to the people who were affected by the hurricane, reported CNN. The heads of security have also been instructed to carry out damage assessments that will help determine whether additional measures would be necessary for the region's recovery or not.
President Obrador is travelling to the hurricane-hit city and is expected to reach there later on Thursday.
National Coordinator of Civil Protection Laura Velázquez in an interview with local news Milenio TV said, “We don’t have a damage assessment because until now, there is no communication with Acapulco. We are going there because we do not have any communication with our colleagues who have already been there for a week doing preventive work for a tropical storm and which in 12 hours became a hurricane."
A power company in Acapulco, CFE, said that the storm knocked out power to more than 500,000 customers in Mexico’s Guerrero state, however, 40 per cent of it has been restored.
According to the visuals doing rounds on social media, rooms were wrecked by the passing of the hurricane, ceilings and walls rent open, windows smashed and cars were seen partly submerged in floodwaters, reported news agency Reuters.
The hurricane dissipated slowly, however, the US National Hurricane Center has warned citizens regarding heavy rainfall in southwestern and south-central Mexico through Thursday and a continued risk of flooding and mudslides, reported Reuters.
The much weaker storm is now headed inland and is expected to dissipate over southern Mexico by Wednesday night, the center said. The US National Hurricane Center has warned citizens regarding heavy rainfall in southwestern and south-central Mexico through Thursday and a continued risk of flooding and mudslides, reported Reuters.