The airport is open but only for outgoing traffic and the hotels are devastated in Acapulco, the latest destination to be decimated by a record-breaking hurricane.
Hurricane Otis unexpectedly roared into a Category 5 on Wednesday and slammed the city at 170 mph on Wednesday, knocking out power and cell phone service and leaving at least 40 dead. Mexican authorities said Otis was the most powerful storm ever to strike Mexico’s Pacific coast.
News is scarce as roads have just reopened. But the beachfront hotel district was hard hit, with 80% of the properties damaged. The Mexican government was bussing tourists to Mexico City, and the airport is open only for flights transporting tourists out.
The airport was severely damaged, reports say, with broken glass and debris littering the ground. The control tower and navigation systems were severely affected, so flights were being operated visually.
“The once-sleek beachfront hotels in Acapulco looked like toothless, shattered hulks after the Category 5 storm blew out hundreds — possibly thousands — of windows. The city’s Diamond Zone, an oceanfront area replete with hotels, restaurants and other tourist attractions, looked to be mostly underwater in drone footage that Foro TV posted online Wednesday afternoon, with boulevards and bridges completely hidden by an enormous lake of brown water,” said one report.
