‘Total disaster’: Mexico hurricane kills at least 27 in Acapulco
- ‘Acapulco is a total disaster. It is not what it was before. The park was totally destroyed, the buildings, all the streets’
- Over 8,000 members of Mexico’s army, air force and national guard were deployed to help clean up after Hurricane Otis, the government said
Hurricane Otis killed at least 27 people when it lashed the beach resort town of Acapulco on Mexico’s Pacific coast as a scale-topping category 5 storm, officials said on Thursday.
The hurricane crashed into Acapulco Tuesday night into Wednesday with furious 270kph (165mph) winds, cutting off communications with the city and delaying updates on fatalities and damage.
“Unfortunately, we received word from the state and city governments that 27 people are dead and four are missing,” Secretary of State for Security Rosa Icela Rodriguez told a press conference in Mexico City.
She said communications with Acapulco were being gradually restored.
The main road connecting it with the capital has reopened but only in one direction, Rodriguez said.
Many people in Acapulco, which has a population of 780,000, were still without electricity on Thursday because the storm knocked out dozens of electrical pylons.
