Hurricane Otis slams Acapulco as Category 5 storm: ‘A nightmare scenario’

globalnews.ca:

Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico’s southern Pacific coast as a Category 5 hurricane early Wednesday morning after “rapidly intensifying” in strength in a matter of hours.

Residents along the coast of Guerrero state, which includes the beach resort town of Acapulco, scrambled to prepare for the hurricane’s landfall. Meteorologists were expecting Otis to be a tropical storm early Tuesday. In just 12 hours, it strengthened into a dangerous Category 5 hurricane by the day’s end.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami called it a “nightmare scenario” late Tuesday, measuring maximum sustained winds of 260 km/h.

“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,” the NHC said. “There are no hurricanes on record even close to this intensity for this part of Mexico.”

The centre warns that Otis could bring life-threatening flooding to the coast with “large and destructive waves,” as well as sustained rainfall that could produce flash flooding and mudslides.

Videos of the storm surge in Acapulco were posted to social media overnight and Wednesday morning, showing flooding in the streets and immense property damage. Another video showed horizontal wind and rain battering a group of palm trees outside a hotel.

<a href=«https://twitter.com/hashtag/acapulco?src=hash&ref_src=» https:>#acapulco

<a href=«https://twitter.com/hashtag/OTIS?src=hash&ref_src=» https:>#OTIS<a href=«https://twitter.com/hashtag/HuracanOtis?src=hash&ref_src=» https:>#HuracanOtis pic.twitter.com/ge9tDya9Tx

— Ing. David Hall (@ClintonHaVi) <a href=«https://twitter.com/ClintonHaVi/status/1717062382290186357?ref_src=» https:>October 25, 2023

Devastat