FOG BLOG WORLD NEWS LOG: HURRICANE OTIS BECAME CAT 5 STORM BEFORE SLAMMING INTO ACAPULCO!

Hurricane Otis kills at least 27 in devastating blow to Acapulco, Mexico, that tore through high-rises and inundated roads At least 27 people are dead and Acapulco, Mexico, has been left in ruins after Hurricane Otis slammed into the coast Wednesday as a record-breaking Category 5 storm.

Four people are also missing, Mexican Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez said during a news conference on Thursday morning.

Officials and military aid finally arrived in Acapulco late Wednesday after their travel was hindered by the same damage they came to help with and assess. What they found was devastating.

Images and video show structures torn apart, including several high-rises. Storm surge and rain left roads inundated, leaving some to wade through several feet of murky water. “In all of Acapulco there is not a standing [electric] pole,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said during a news conference Thursday. The president said there were more than 1,000 workers working to rebuild the grid so water service can be restored to the area.

More than 500,000 homes and businesses lost power across Mexico’s Guerrero state, power utility CFE said. Service had been restored to 40% of those affected, it added.

A popular tourist destination, about 80% of Acapulco’s hotels were impacted by Otis, according to Guerrero Gov. Evelyn Salgado. Salgado said her office is “supporting tourists” with “30 to 40 trucks that are outside hotels to evacuate (visitors) to other areas free of charge.”

Officials and residents were left with little time to prepare for the severity of the storm because early forecasts significantly underestimated the threat. Otis rapidly intensified from a tropical storm to an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane – the area’s strongest storm on record – in just 12 hours.