Mexican security authorities raise Hurricane Otis death toll to 39

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Mexican officials raised the death toll to 39 on Saturday from Hurricane Otis, which struck the country's southern Pacific coast including the resort city of Acapulco early Wednesday as a powerful Category 5 storm.

Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said in a recorded video message with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador posted to the platform X that the probable cause of death for the 39 was "suffocation by submersion." She said the victims had not yet been identified and that investigations continue.

The new death toll was an increase of 12 over the initial tally of 27 announced Thursday. But the storm's human toll was becoming a point of contention as local media reported the recovery of more bodies and López Obrador criticised opponents for trying to make it a political issue.

Rodríguez also said the number of missing rose to 10. Hundreds of families have been awaiting word from loved ones.

In Acapulco on Saturday, government workers and volunteers cleared streets, gas station lines wrapped around the block for what fuel was to be had, and some lucky families found food essentials as a more organised relief operation took shape four days after the storm hit.

Military personnel and volunteers worked along Acapulco's main tourist strip. They sliced through fallen palm trees and metal signs. Cellphone signals were partially recovered near some of the city's most luxurious hotels, and authorities placed a charging station for people to charge their phones.

But on the periphery of the city, neighbourhoods remained in total chaos. The government presence found in the touristic centre was not visible in other neighbourhoods. With no signal, with no water and no food, families and the elderly trudged through foot-deep mud and flooded streets to get to large warehouses someone had found full of food, taking bags of food and liquids.

Aid has been slow to arrive. The Category 5 storm's destruction cut off the city of nearly 1 million people for the first day; it had intensified so quickly on Tuesday that little to nothing had been staged in advance.

Authorities had the difficult task of searching for the dead and missing. Many had remained incredulous that the government's initial death toll of 27 and four missing had not risen in the past two days. Hundreds of families awaited word from loved ones.

One military official, who did not want to give his name because he was not authorised to speak to media, said officials in his area had found at least six bodies and that his own unit had found one. It had been difficult to find bodies because they were often covered in trees and other debris, he said.

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