Hurricane Otis has ripped through the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco as a category 4 storm, battering hotels and leaving a trail of damage as it pummeled the southern Pacific coast with torrential rain and high winds.
As dawn broke over Acapulco, photos and videos posted on social media showed rooms wrecked by the passing of the hurricane, ceilings and walls ripped open and cars partly submerged in floodwaters as the southern state of Guerrero awoke to the disarray left in its wake.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the president of Mexico, said that so far no loss of life had been reported, but he added that there was “ no communication” with the affected area.
López Obrador said the areas of Costa Grande, Acapulco and Tecpán – all in Guerrero state – were all “hit hard” by Otis, adding that damage to the local military airport has made it hard for emergency teams to access the region.
Mexico’s civil protection authorities reported power outages throughout Guerrero, while flights to and from Acapulco were suspended and classes cancelled due to Otis, one of the most powerful storms to hit the country’s Pacific coast.
At approximately 6am local time, Otis was 60 miles (100km) north-north-west of Acapulco, having weakened rapidly as it moved inland. However, it was still blowing winds of 110mph, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Overnight, Otis strengthened from a tropical storm to a dangerous category 5 hurricane in a matter of hours. “A nightmare scenario is unfolding for southern Mexico this evening with rapidly intensifying Otis approaching the coastline,” an NHC forecaster said late on Tuesday.
“This is an extremely serious situation for the Acapulco metropolitan area with the core of the destructive hurricane likely to come near or over that large city early on Wednesday,” the weather service said. “There are no hurricanes on record even close to this intensity for this part of Mexico.”
López Obrador told people via the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, “to go to shelters, stay in safe places away from rivers, streams, ravines and be alert, without being overconfident”.
Early on Wednesday, the hurricane was downgraded to category 4 and is expected to dissipate over the coming 24 hours. In the meantime it is bringing heavy rainfall and flash flooding with hurricane-force winds into wide swaths of southern Mexico.
Otis could bring up to 20in (51cm) of rain in parts of Guerrero and Oaxaca states, mudslides, a “potentially catastrophic” storm surge, and life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, authorities said.
“Life-threatening storm surge will continue along the coast of southern Mexico this morning in areas of onshore winds within the hurricane warning. Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and dangerous waves,” said NHC.
Mexico’s national water agency, Conagua, warned of six- to eight-meter surf off Guerrero and parts of Oaxaca.
In Guerrero, authorities opened storm shelters, and the national guard was ready for rescues and evacuations.
The defense ministry enacted a disaster plan ahead of the storm’s arrival, and soldiers patrolled Acapulco’s emptying beaches.
Guerrero is one of Mexico’s most impoverished and violent states. Just on Monday, a local police chief and 12 police officers were massacred and found on a highway in the Guerrero township of Coyuca de Benítez, not far from the storm’s impact zone.