Devastation of Hurricane Otis in Mexico being felt in Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — Hurricane Otis ravaged Acapulco, Mexico last week.
Daniel Hernandez is getting voice messages, pictures and constant updates from his mother there.
"My mom is telling me not to send money, because Acapulco's completely destroyed," he said. "My mom's house survived, but my sister's house is completely gone."
The official death toll is more than 40, but Hernandez says family members in Acapulco tell him it's significantly higher than that.
"There is a lot of sadness, a lot of pain," he said. "It's a ghost town, basically, and not just a ghost town. They're basically ghosts inside of them right now because they're hopeless, completely hopeless."
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Hernandez says there's a large community in Minneapolis of people from Acapulco, including Lorenza Arellanez, whose family got hit even worse than his.
"Her family lost basically everything they had," Hernandez said. "They used to own restaurants. All the restaurants are gone. Their personal homes are gone."
The category five hurricane took most by surprise.
The rate at which the storm intensified is the second-fastest recorded in modern times by the National Hurricane Center.
"People did not have enough food, did not have enough anything," Hernandez said. "They were thinking it's just another hurricane. It's the season."
Meteorologist Lisa Meadows says climate change is contributing to higher-intensity hurricanes like Otis.
"They run off of the warm sea surface temperatures and with climate change, we're seeing an increase in those sea surface temperatures," she said. "It's getting warmer. These hurricanes are using that heat energy and that can help them to become stronger."
The hurricane season in the atlantic continues through November 30.