Two weeks after Hurricane Otis struck the seaport city of Acapulco, Mexico, a Nova Scotian woman is bringing to light her family’s ongoing struggle to survive.
Although Sherry Doyle was born and raised in Nova Scotia, her mother is from Mexico, and Doyle has spent much of her life between the two countries.
“I truly and always have felt as though both have been my home,” Doyle says. “But when I think of Acapulco… it’s like the back of my hand.”
Doyle’s grandmother, brother and many aunts, uncles and cousins were in Acapulco on Oct. 25 when Hurricane Otis made landfall.
In the days following the Class 5 hurricane’s two-hour rampage through Acapulco’s streets, Doyle slowly learned the extent of damage and devastation.
“The entire infrastructure was gone. So, there was no contact, nothing for at least a week,” Doyle says. “We didn’t know if anyone survived. We didn’t know if anything was even there.”
Doyle says the death tolls announced by the Mexican authorities and news outlets were downplayed in the first few days after the storm, and they failed to reflect the gravity of the disaster.
As a coastal city that thrives off tourism, Doyle says the main streets of Acapulco were lined with ocean-side resorts. Now, those resorts are gone.
“I don’t think anyone will fully understand how many people are gone. Because they’re in the sea. They will always be missing,” she says.
When news of the storm broke, Doyle recalls worrying whether her brother was at work down on the main streets of Acapulco or if he was at home on the mountain overlooking the city.
“Was he a part of the 15-foot wave and gone?” Doyle says. “Or was he with my grandmother who was at the top of the mountain, where the landslides are happening?”
When Doyle finally did get word from her family, it was through her 21-year-old cousin, Carla, who lives outside of Acapulco.
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Doyle says about three days after the storm, Carla took it upon herself to go find the rest of their family in the city.
According to Doyle, Carla drove her car to the city’s outskirts, but was stopped by the military who told her she could not continue in her vehicle.
“So, what she did, at 21-years-old, is found someone that was living in Chilpancingo and traded the car to get a motorcycle that she’s never ridden before. Learn how to ride it, to get into Acapulco,” Doyle says “Which should only take an hour. It took her six hours to figure out a path.”
Doyle says when Carla finally made it to their grandmother’s house, the windows were smashed and there was water coming in. Same with her brother’s apartment, but they were still alive and okay.
In the days following her arrival, Doyle says Carla went out to scavenge the streets for food and water.
“She was the one that had two feet and a heartbeat,” Doyle says. “The men can deal with trying to put barriers up from the elements. She knew that she was the one with the energy, that she could go out and get the food.”
Doyle compared her cousin to a real-life Robin Hood. The odd time Carla came across something someone had looted and dropped, Doyle says, she would throw it in her backpack to bring back to the family.
Meanwhile, back in Canada, Doyle started a GoFundMe to help raise money for all the repairs that would be needed to her family’s homes.
So far, she’s raised $755, but says that’s only been able to cover immediate needs such as toilet paper and canned food, if they were able to find them.
Doyle says $300 of the money went to replacing her grandmother’s water drum, which blew off during the hurricane.
“People don’t understand that it was, I think, the minimum wind was 266 kilometres per hour,” Doyle says. “That’s unfathomable.”
According to the National Tidal Service, a wind gust of 330 kilometres per hour was measured at a weather station near Acapulco during the hurricane. If verified, it will rank in the top 15 wind gusts measured globally in terms of speed.
Chris Fogarty, a meteorologist with the Canadian Hurricane Centre, says Hurricane Otis surprised scientists with where it struck and how quickly it developed.
“We can think of Otis, Hurricane Otis, as more of a tornado-type of prediction scenario. Tornadoes are very hard to predict. You can only really predict them under a 30-minute time-frame,” he says.
Doyle says she thinks it will take seven-10 years to rebuild Acapulco, and around $250 billion — that is, if steps continue to be taken.
“I care. My family cares. The locals care. But we’re not government. We’re not military,” Doyle says “This might be gone in a couple of weeks, a couple of months. We hope that they keep paying attention.
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