In the 60’s, middle and high-level people, if they were at a party on Friday, quite often someone would propose; Let’s go to Acapulco! and they would go out by car to drive seven hours on a zigzagging, narrow, and regularly in poor condition road.
That was not an impediment, it was a challenge, there were no insecurity problems, now it is unthinkable to drive to Acapulco at night.
It was a world-class tourist gem. Partly because it was the closest and most exotic destination for Americans and Canadians seeking to forget the memories of the Second War and experiencing post-war growth. Visited by great celebrities from all over the world as a must-see place to have fun such as: Tom Jones, James Caan, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Elizabeth Taylor, Sean Connery, Farrah Fawcett.
All visitors to the port tried to attend fashionable places like: Carlos N’ Charles, the Aku Tiki, the Yacht Club, and nightclubs like the Tequila Agogo. Champagne Agogo, El Bocaccio, El Baby’O and the very exclusive Armando’s Le Club where you didn’t enter if you didn’t know someone. Hotel occupancy was on average above 85%.
After the pandemic, Acapulco’s occupancy fell dramatically. During 2022, according to the Ministry of Tourism, it had an average occupancy of just 46.4%, with its maximum being a poor 59.5% in December and at the time that Hurricane Otis made landfall, hotel occupancy in the golden zone and in the The diamond zone was at 50%, according to Jorge Laurel, hotel businessman and former president of the Hotel Association and Tourism Companies of Acapulco, this low occupancy is apparently caused by tourists’ fear of organized crime.
On October 25, 2023 at 00:39:00, Hurricane Otis made landfall on the coast of Guerrero with winds of 210 km/h, hitting Acapulco squarely as a category 5 cyclone according to the Saffir scale. Simpson. The damage is not yet well quantified, but, although the federal government speaks of 27 people dead, security forces have reported a number above 50, 95% of the hotels were affected and electricity, water and telephone services were cut. .
In his first statements, the president announced “Communications have been completely lost”, however, he said that so far there is a blank balance, later he said “We were lucky”, “there were not so many (dead)”, “the Creator gave us “protected.” Governor Evelyn Salgado showed her face 48 hours after the hurricane entered.
The city’s mayor Abelina López Rodríguez did the same, appearing 48 hours later to ask citizens to clean the streets.
In the absence of assistance, the population resorted to stealing food and appliances without the slightest scruple, as well as anything of value.
The mayor called this behavior “social cohesion.” As always in Mexico, civil society organizes to support its fellow citizens, but upon arriving near Acapulco, army personnel informed them that only they and the navy personnel were authorized to deliver the donations, this, although It has its logic, the civil organizations have chosen to be the ones who deliver them because then they do not arrive, and there is also the issue of political propaganda.
It is clear that we do not have the necessary conditions to handle an emergency like this, the authorities, starting with the president, do not have the slightest idea what to do before a hurricane hits, the buildings, as happened in Mexico City. in 1985, they are not built to withstand an event of this type and there are no clear plans implemented with the population to minimize the damage.
We will have to attend to all the people who were left homeless and without work and carry out actions to repair the entire hotel infrastructure. We must keep in mind that the more than 800 thousand inhabitants of Acapulco depend on the tourism industry.
Recovering is going to require a lot of money, in the meantime we will have to see how people are going to live, for organized crime it will be a golden opportunity to recruit followers.
The Secretary of the Treasury will go these days in order to organize the rescue of Acapulco, let’s hope he does it effectively.
This is the real disaster; that we do not have plans for preparation, emergency management and recovery, nor resources assigned to minimize the effects of these phenomena, and what there was, the Natural Disaster Fund trust (Fonden), the president disappeared, hence the cost It’s going to be so high. Tampico-Madero and Altamira are in the same situation; popular culture says that aliens protect us. I hope we never face a situation like this. We are going to suffer enormously.
2023-10-29 13:57:09
#Otis #real #disaster #Express
