Survivors of deadly Hurricane Otis grow desperate for food and aid
The Category 5 storm killed at least 27 people.
ACAPULCO, Mexico — Officials said Friday that that they are moving supplies into Acapulco and getting people out of the devastated city three days after Hurricane Otis pummeled Mexico's Pacific coast.
Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval announced that the official number of 27 dead and four missing had not changed. Some in Mexico were skeptical of official tolls because the city remains largely cut off. Some local media have reported bodies in the city that have not yet been recovered. Hundreds of people continued looking Friday for loved ones who have not been heard from since the storm.
Military officials leading Mexico’s response to the hurricane focused during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s morning news briefing on the relief that would arriving in Acapulco.
An “air bridge” between Acapulco and Mexico City was established, they said. Planes carrying medical personnel would be landing at Acapulco’s commercial airport and leaving with tourists. The city’s military air base would receive all material aid flights and also carrying evacuees back to the capital. Some 120 buses would also carry people out of the badly damaged city.
“Nature, the creator, protected us, even from the fury of the hurricane, it appears, López Obrador said. “We still have to wait to have all of the information about the missing people.”
“But it appears, even though the death of any person is unfortunate, there weren’t very many.”
Large swaths of Acapulco remained without electricity and thus without potable water because the pumps were not running, officials said.
López Obrador called on people to stop taking advantage of the situation to take things from stores, something that has
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