Acapulco was struggling Sunday to recover from the extraordinarily powerful Hurricane Otis, which claimed 48 lives across southern Mexico and provoked widespread power outages and criticism of the government response.
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“We are going to fight for ourselves,” Margarita Carmona told AFP after chopping up fallen trees along with her son-in-law and other residents in the Puerto Marques neighborhood.
They, like many in this port city and tourist haunt of 780,000, grew tired of waiting for government aid, which only began being distributed Saturday — days after Category 5 Otis roared ashore and left local landmarks, built over decades, look like they had been bombed out.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador flew over the disaster area and held meetings with officials in charge of the relief operation, local media reported.
After the hurricane hit Wednesday, a feeling of abandonment gripped residents, including Julian Matadama, a 52-year-old construction worker, who banded together with other locals to clear debris.
“We are in need of help,” he said.
But after widespread water, power and telecommunications outages, they face a tough road ahead.
“There is no way for you to feed yourself, there is no way to drink water,” added a fisherman, standing next to him.
Another setback
Though the city is far from its tourism heyday in the 1950s and ’60s, when it attracted Hollywood stars and jet setters, its beaches still attract visitors — or at least they did before Otis.
