Deadly Hurricane Otis Slams Acapulco, Mexico

Facts

• On Wednesday morning (local time), Hurricane Otis made landfall along Mexico’s southern Pacific coast as a catastrophic Category 5 cyclone. It quickly lost strength and was downgraded to a Category 2 storm but not before causing severe damage in Acapulco, a popular tourist destination.¹
• According to Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Office, at least 27 people have died and many others have been reported missing in the wake of Hurricane Otis. The President’s office also said that the weather conditions and the conditions of the roadways have prevented a full damage assessment.²
• Hurricane Otis blasted Acapulco and the surrounding coastal regions with winds topping 165 mph (265 km/hr). Before slowly fully exiting the region, the storm system will have unleashed up to 20 inches (50 cm) of rain resulting in swollen rivers, urban flash flooding, mudslides, and landslides.²
• The storm system will be recorded as a record breaker. Before landfall, Colorado State University hurricane specialist Phil Klotzbach said on X (formerly Twitter), 'Hurricane Otis has intensified by 80 mph in the past 12 hours…That’s the fastest 12-hour intensification rate in the eastern North Pacific (to 180°) in the satellite era (since 1966).'³
• The precarious situation has trapped residents without supplies and set off a wave of looting as disaster survivors grow tired of waiting for support to arrive.⁴
• Hurricane Otis devastated electric and communications infrastructure in what authorities are calling a 'nightmare scenario.' When speaking about the devastation in Acapulco, the National Coordinator of Civil Protection, Laura Velázquez said, “We are going there because we do not have any communication with our colleagues who have already been there for a week doing preventative work for a tropical storm and which in 12 hours became a hurricane.”⁵

Sources: ¹CBS, ²ABC News, ³FOX Weather, ⁴Associated Press and ⁵CNN.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by The Atlantic. Hurricane Otis is proof that more funding is needed for hurricane prediction. The number of storms that undergo rapid intensification has grown beyond current forecasting models and software. Increased funding will support computers with a greater capacity to collect, store, and analyze data to further the science. While we can't control what a storm does after it has formed, we can control the data we gather to aid in the development of better warning systems. Nature has overshot our current weather prediction technology.
• Narrative B, as provided by The New York Times. Hurricane Otis dealt an unpredictable and devastating blow to the communities on the Mexican coastline. However, what is predictable and preventable is the devastating toll that recovery will take on the residents of the area. Instead of preparing for a disaster like this, Mexico’s President spent two years dismantling the country’s Natural Disaster Fund. Two years later, his ill-advised decision will further devastate residents as they try to recover from a catastrophic disaster. The lack of preparation was mostly a failure of process and governance.

Predictions