(CNN) — The death toll in Mexico has climbed to 39 after Category 5 Hurricane Otis hit the country’s Guerrero state earlier this week, authorities said in a statement Saturday.
Authorities said 29 men and 10 women were killed when the record-breaking storm brought powerful sustained winds of 165 mph ashore near Acapulco shortly after midnight on Wednesday, leaving the popular southern Mexico tourist destination in ruins.
The hurricane impacted 220,035 homes and 80% of the area’s hotels were damaged, according to the Mexican government’s preliminary damage assessment.
The health sector reported ground-floor flooding at one hospital, and another hospital where electromechanical equipment and the medicinal gas supply were affected, the statement said.
Falling trees and landslides triggered by Otis resulted in multiple roads being closed.
The statement added the Mexican Seismic Alert System (SASMEX) has damage to 27 sensors in the Pacific Ocean region. The Acapulco International Airport also suffered damage, but operations have since resumed.
An underestimation of the threat in early forecasts left residents and officials in southern Mexico with minimal time to prepare for Otis’s severity. Within a mere 12 hours, Otis rapidly intensified from a tropical storm to the area’s strongest storm on record, CNN previously reported.
The devastation from Otis left structures, including some high-rise buildings, in shambles with exposed cinder blocks, scattered pieces of wood and nonexistent rooftops, images and video showed. Storm surge and rain inundated roads with several feet of murky floodwaters.
The storm knocked out power in over half a million homes and businesses across the Guerrero state, according to Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission, which had restored electricity to 55% of those affected by Saturday, according to the statement.
Around 10,000 military members were deployed to the Acapulco area to assist with efforts, authorities said.
Guerrero’s state government said it coordinated the transfer of 200 tourists farther inland to Mexico City.
President Joe Biden said in a statement Friday he is “deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation” from Hurricane Otis.
“I have directed my Administration to work closely with our partners in the Government of Mexico to offer our full support,” Biden said in the statement. “We are also working to ensure the safety of American citizens in and around Acapulco.”
CNN’s Elizabeth Wolfe and Mary Gilbert contributed to this report.
