Hurricane Otis death toll at 39 as searchers comb through debris around Acapulco

People take items from stores in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023.

Felix Marquez/AP

ACAPULCO, Mexico — At least 43 people died when Category 5 Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, the governor of hard-hit Guerrero said Sunday as the death toll continued to climb.

Gov. Evelyn Salgado said on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, that the number of missing also rose to 36 from 10 a day earlier. That increase came after authorities had raised the toll to 39 on Saturday.

In Acapulco, families began to bury the dead on Sunday and continued the search for essentials while government workers and volunteers cleared streets clogged with muck and debris from the powerful Category 5 hurricane.

More resources were arriving as searchers recovered more bodies from Acapulco’s harbor and from beneath fallen trees and other storm debris.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Saturday that his opponents are trying to inflate the toll to damage him politically, but with hundreds of families still awaiting word from loved ones it was likely to keep rising.

Otis roared ashore early Wednesday with devastating 165 mph (266 kph) winds after strengthening so rapidly that people had little time to prepare.

Kristian Vera stood on an Acapulco beach Saturday looking out toward dozens of sunken boats, including three of her own, all marked by floating buoys or just poking out of the water.

Despite losing her livelihood in Otis’ brutal pass through Mexico’s over Pacific coast, the 44-year-old fisher felt fortunate. Earlier in the day, she watched a body pulled from the…