Cat 5 hurricane devastates Acapulco

[turboteal]

www.npr.org/2023/10/27/1208982615/acapulco-mexico-hurricane-otis

Hurricane Otis has caused massive damage to Acapulco, on Mexico's Pacific coast. Forecasters completely missed predicting how much the storm would intensify and how quickly: it was a tropical storm Tuesday morning, then Category 5 when it made landfall that night (around 1am local time). The damage is breathtaking, and locals have received little aid so far. The rain caused a lot of mud/landslides from the nearby mountainous areas that have cut off a lot of access to the area.

[Gato]

It’s terrible. Personally, I have never seen such shocking weather damage to large buildings as pictured in this article:

yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/10/acapulco-reeling-from-catastrophic-damage-in-the-wake-of-hurricane-otis/

Nobody could predict it because this is new. Before, hurricanes would ramp up day by day, and there would be time to warn people. Now, with the ocean getting warmer every year, there’s much more “fuel” to feed a storm system, and they can intensify out of nowhere. I’m not sure how you can get a population of over a million people to effectively respond by evening when something is just a tropical storm in the morning.

[karinothing]

Also it doesn't help that the Mexican government has been horrible in this..I know as of yesterday the governor hadn't even responded (or been seen) and there are reports of high body counts the gov is denying.

It's horrible and the US should be sending aide given 1) how close Mexico is and 2) how many Americans visit

[StrawberryBlondie]

Isn't Mexico usually really impressively good with hurricane preparedness? Or am I mis-remembering?

[nsl]

I feel like in spite of how severe it was, how terrifyingly fast it developed into a Category 5, and how many Americans are familiar with the area from vacationing there, this story has barely broken the surface in our national news cycle. And that's terrifying in its own right.

[Velar Fricative]

Oct 28, 2023 12:56:37 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Isn't Mexico usually really impressively good with hurricane preparedness? Or am I mis-remembering?

They were…until two years ago.

www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/25/world/hurricane-otis-mexico-news/mexico-disaster-relief-funds?unlocked_article_code=1.6Ew.bkGS.A4er_uGELNyR&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

[ellipses84]

Oct 28, 2023 13:16:54 GMT -5 nsl said:

I feel like in spite of how severe it was, how terrifyingly fast it developed into a Category 5, and how many Americans are familiar with the area from vacationing there, this story has barely broken the surface in our national news cycle. And that's terrifying in its own right.

I agree. I only first heard about it because a friend of a friend has family there and they posted a go-fund me. Sadly these catastrophic weather events are occurring so much more frequently. Hurricanes are hard to predict and I feel like we are in unprecedented territory due to climate change.

[karinothing]

Oct 28, 2023 12:56:37 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Isn't Mexico usually really impressively good with hurricane preparedness? Or am I mis-remembering?

It went from a tropical storm to a category 5 in something like 12 hours. It was NOT predicted to be strong or a danger. They prepared for a tropical storm and it changed rapidly. No one had time. The meteorologist community had been pretty shaken up by it.

[Deleted]

Oct 29, 2023 8:02:08 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Oct 28, 2023 12:56:37 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Isn't Mexico usually really impressively good with hurricane preparedness? Or am I mis-remembering?

It went from a tropical storm to a category 5 in something like 12 hours. It was NOT predicted to be strong or a danger. They prepared for a tropical storm and it changed rapidly. No one had time. The meteorologist community had been pretty shaken up by it.

Exactly. There’s a difference between normal emergency preparedness (having extra food, water, batteries, flashlights, gas for generators, etc) and being prepared for a Cat 5. Many people, if given enough warning, will evacuate for a Cat 3 or higher. There really is no way to prepare in advance for a a Cat 5 and total destruction of home, community, and infrastructure. And there is no way to evacuate on such short notice (way less than 12 hours, probably more like 4-6 is what they actually had, and that kind of thing takes days under the best of circumstances).