Otis is set to strike Mexico’s west coast by Acapulco, a city of about 1 million people, as a Category 5 hurricane early Wednesday. Hurricane warnings stretch from Punta Maldonado north to Zihuantanejo along the southern portion of Mexico’s west coast in the state of Guerrero.
The previous morning, Otis was a tropical storm with top winds of 70 mph. By evening, it was a Category 5 hurricane with its stronger winds measured at 160 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 National Hurricane Center wrote in a bulletin Tuesday evening. The storm’s torrential rain is forecast to produce widespread totals of 8 to 16 inches, and localized amounts up to 20 inches through Friday.
Otis became the fastest strengthening storm on record in the northeast Pacific since 1966, after peak winds increased more than 80 mph in 12 hours, said Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher at Colorado State University. Storms that intensify as rapidly as Otis are most difficult to prepare for as they leave little time for governments to warn residents and for emergency management to mobilize resources.