Tourist attraction Acapulco…10 people missing
Small boats sinking and being destroyed, disrupting livelihoods
President Obrador… “55% restoration of communication network”
American media, including the Associated Press, reported that on the 28th (local time), on the beach of Acapulco, a tourist attraction in Mexico, where Hurricane Otis swept through, dozens of ships sank or were destroyed, with only buoys remaining or parts of their hulls rising above the water. did.
Christian Vera, 44, a fisherman who lost three boats along the Pacific coast of southern Mexico when Otis passed by, told reporters he was lucky. He said that because that morning he saw a body being pulled from the water at the beach and countless families of missing people wandering the beach looking for their loved ones.
However, the number of deaths and missing people is expected to increase further than what the authorities announced. This is because since Otis, which was upgraded to a category 5 hurricane on the 25th, initially started out as a small tropical storm, many tourists and fishermen went out to sea on numerous small boats.
Vera and four other fishermen are swimming out using empty gas cylinders as life tubes and trying to pull up sunken boats in the harbor in low water.
This hurricane grew in strength so quickly that many shipowners evacuated their ships, or yacht captains were instructed by shipowners to check whether their ships were safe, and many people drowned when they went out to their ships while Otis was still weak. said to
Rosa Isela Rodriguez, head of Mexico’s security agency, announced Otiz’s victims in a video speech through Platform X with President Obrador on the 28th (local time).
He said that most of the 39 deaths were found to be drowning or suffocation on a sunken ship, and that an investigation into the identity of the dead was still in progress.
He said the number of dead and missing people is increasing over time, and hundreds of families are still anxiously awaiting search results.
In downtown Acapulco, which was hit hard by Otis, city hall officials and volunteers are cleaning the streets, and people are lining up to get fuel at every gas station that is open for business. Only four days after Otis passed did relief work, including rescue and food distribution, begin properly.
Military units and volunteers are also cleaning up Acapulco’s largest tourist beach. We are erecting fallen palm trees and repairing metal road signs.
Residents are crossing muddy roads with no traffic lights and walking long distances to get water, food, and food. When they discover a warehouse or store full of food, they turn into looters.
However, the war against knee-deep mud is not expected to end easily.
There is still a power outage in the city, and the overall communication condition is poor, with mobile phone communication only being resumed in some areas where tourist hotels and facilities are concentrated.
The Associated Press reported that the authorities are having great difficulty finding the bodies of the dead and the missing since the delivery of relief supplies is too slow and a large city with a population of 1 million was hit by a hurricane without any preparation.
Obtaining gasoline is difficult, authorities said, not because there is no oil, but because the power needed to pump it out has been cut off.
Drinking water and tap water are also scarce, and there is no power to operate the electric pump, so even the water supply has been completely cut off.
President López Obrador deployed a total of 15,000 troops to various parts of the city to maintain security and prevent looting.
He announced that power is currently out to about 200,000 households and offices in the affected areas, but that about 55% of them have been restored thanks to the efforts of the state-run electric company.
The Federal Civil Defense Headquarters calculated that approximately 220,000 households were currently affected by Hurricane Otis.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.