ACAPULCO, Mexico – The number of people dead and missing due to Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 storm that hit the Mexican Pacific resort city of Acapulco last week, has risen to nearly 100, authorities in the state of Mexico said Monday. Warrior.
Otis hit Acapulco with winds of 266 kilometers per hour (165 miles per hour) on Wednesday, flooding the city, tearing roofs off homes, hotels and other businesses, submerging vehicles and cutting communications, as well as road and air connections.
Looting broke out as the city’s population of nearly 900,000 became increasingly desperate for food and water.
Evelyn Salgado, governor of Guerrero state, native to Acapulco, said 45 people were confirmed dead and another 47 were missing, citing figures from state prosecutors.
On Sunday afternoon, Mexico’s federal civil protection authorities said there were 48 dead, 43 of them in Acapulco and five in nearby Coyuca de Benítez.
Among the dead are an American citizen, a British citizen and a Canadian, according to the Guerrero government.
Fishermen and tour yacht workers gathered in Acapulco’s Playa Honda on Sunday afternoon to search for missing colleagues and friends, concerned that officials were not doing enough.
A man walks through rubble and mud, after the passage of Hurricane Otis, in the Progreso neighborhood of Acapulco, Mexico, on Monday.REUTERS
Luis Alberto Medina, a fisherman, said he was looking for six people who worked in the port.
“It was really horrible,” Medina said. “We have already found other people’s bodies.”
FEAR OF ASSAULT
Governor Salgado provided updated figures by phone with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who during a regular government press conference urged local authorities to ensure that basic products were delivered to the population of Acapulco.
People bathe and clean their belongings in the El Camarón River on Monday.REUTERS
The cost of damage from the hurricane could be as much as $15 billion according to estimates, and Mexico has sent some 17,000 members of the armed forces to maintain order and help distribute tons of food and supplies in Acapulco.
ATMs have also been attacked in the city.
Two service points will be installed at branches of an armed forces development bank in Acapulco to allow people to withdraw cash, the Treasury Department said Monday.
Juan Gregorio Torres walks through the rubble of his house, after the passage of Hurricane Otis on Monday.REUTERS
Access to food and water remains a challenge, and retail group ANTAD on Monday urged the government to step up efforts to prevent looting at stores run by its members. Members include Soriana and Chedraui.
“We condemn the acts of theft by the population,” ANTAD said in a statement. “There is no justification for it”.
A line of about 150 people waiting for water provided by a local authority snaked through the muddy streets of the La Frontera neighborhood on Sunday afternoon, as residents with empty water containers lamented the hours-long wait.
“Look how many of us there are,” said one of them, Emilia Rojas, looking around desperately. “There are so many of us. “This water will not be enough.”
On a nearby street, Perla Rubi said the long wait was uncomfortable, given the desperation of the people.
“We have been here since dawn, since five in the morning, risking being robbed, because now they are assaulting people in the streets,” he said. “Where is the government help?”
The disaster struck Acapulco just seven months before Mexico’s next presidential election, and López Obrador on Monday reiterated his claim that critics were attacking his response to Otis and inflating its impact for electoral reasons.
His fierce denunciations sparked criticism that the president was downplaying the severity of the disaster.
Information by José Decavele; Additional reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Isabel Woodford; Written by Dave Graham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tomasz Janowski.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn