Important Takeaways:

• Hurricane Otis strengthens into Mexico’s most powerful storm as the ‘catastrophic’ Category 5 barrels towards Acapulco
• Hurricane Otis intensified from a tropical storm to a dangerous Category 5 hurricane in a matter of hours as it drew near Mexico’s southern Pacific coast and was projected to cause catastrophic damage.
• The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Otis had maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour on Tuesday evening.
• It was centered about 55 miles south-southeast of Acapulco and moving north-northwest at 9 mph.
• ‘This is an extremely serious situation for the Acapulco metropolitan area with the core of the destructive hurricane likely to come near or over that large city early on Wednesday,’ the center said.
• ‘There are no hurricanes on record even close to this intensity for this part of Mexico.’
• Otis will likely die out over southern Mexico on Wednesday night.
• But the storm is anticipated to dump eight to 16 inches of rain on the country by the end of the week, with some areas seeing up to 20 inches.
• The heavy rainfall could lead to flash flooding as well as mudslides in areas with elevated terrain
• The Guerrero state government said it was preparing 396 shelters in anticipation of families being displaced by wind or water damage.
• Mexico’s army and navy sent more than 8,000 troops to the area to aid in rescues
• If Otis makes landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, it will be the first of its kind in the East Pacific.

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