Hurricane Otis deals the death blow to the famous seaside resort of Acapulco

As the ‘Pearl of the Pacific’, Acapulco has already lost much of its luster this century, but Hurricane Otis now seems to be dealing the final blow to the world-famous Mexican seaside resort. After heavy rain showers and stormy winds pounded the southwestern port city for three hours on Wednesday, the coastline with its high hotel apartments already looked like a bombed ghost town. Now that emergency aid is only arriving sparsely after five days, the power and telephone network is faltering and residents have started looting, local media describe the holiday resort as a lawless war zone.

The official number of victims (48 dead, dozens missing) is relatively small. But since Otis unexpectedly quickly swelled from a tropical storm to a hurricane in the highest, fifth category, on Tuesday night, local and senior administrators continue to lag behind.

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In pictures: Hurricane Otis plunges the once enchanting seaside resort of Acapulco into complete chaos

The Mexican newspaper The universal said in a report on Monday about ‘the apocalypse of a city’. The newspaper describes “miles of destruction, debris, overturned cars, fallen poles, downed trees, houses without roofs and buildings without doors,” among which “caravans of people” scurry about with food and other looted goods. “Hundreds of men, women, children and elderly people with boxes full of peppers, potatoes, napkins, toilet paper, soda, beer, cigars, everything they can carry.”

While in addition to shops, hardware stores and department stores have also been looted, there are long traffic jams at gas stations. Residents try to stock up on gasoline to get out of the city, but are only allowed to stock up on 20 liters per fill-up. “As soon as the fuel supply runs out, scenes of anger and despair reverberate through the streets.”

Instead in Acapulco

Hollywood stars like John Wayne and Elizabeth Taylor once sunbathed on the beaches of Acapulco’s shell-shaped bay. Well before the Four Tops scored a world hit in 1988 with Instead in Acapulco, the western middle class en masse dreamed of a stay or honeymoon in legendary hotels such as the Caleta or Los Flamingos. Millions of people came home with photos of the fearless cliff divers of La Quebrada, of the beer-drinking donkey on the islet of Roqueta, or with stories about their snorkeling excursion to the underwater statue for the Virgin of the Seas.

At the beginning of this century, violence from drug gangs turned the city into the ‘murder capital of the world’ for years. Since then, many foreign visitors have stayed away from Acapulco. But for Mexicans themselves, Acapulco remained a popular destination for a beach holiday or long weekend away. Thanks to a highway connecting Mexico City built in 1926, it is only a few hours’ drive from the metropolis to the coast.

Otis not only damaged 220,000 homes, but also an estimated 80 percent of hotels. More than half a million people are without power. The tourism lobby expects that tourists may not be welcomed again until 2025.

Acapulco is located in Guerrero, one of the Mexican states that suffers most from violence from criminal gangs and the absence of strong government authority. After Otis, the federal government mobilized the army and national guard, but these reinforcements are not able to restore order everywhere. Outside the tourist hotel zone, residents of several neighborhoods have formed self-defense groups to armedly guard their homes against looters.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador himself painfully illustrated how inadequate the government response is. During a first visit to the disaster area, his army jeep got stuck in the mud. The populist then angrily ignored criticism of the lack of aid this weekend. He dismissed them as politically motivated attacks by “circling vultures” seeking to discredit his left-wing ruling party ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

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