In Los Flamingos Hotel, a one-time Hollywood hangout in Acapulco, Mexico, the pink paint and a few framed photos of the stars are all that escaped Hurricane Otis unscathed. Miguel Ángel, the manager, has been patching it up in the hope of reopening – at least partly – before Christmas. The high season should have been in full swing by now. “If the tourists don’t come, I don’t know what we’ll do,” he says, his optimism faltering for a moment.
During the early hours of 25 October, Otis hit Acapulco as the strongest hurricane ever to land on Mexico’s Pacific coast. It had intensified exceptionally quickly, meaning that few of Acapulco’s 850,000 people were able to evacuate. Most hunkered down in their homes and hotels as 165mph winds lashed the city. Eighty people were reported dead or missing. Preliminary estimates of damages and losses range up to £12.8bn.
