Joseph Namlick found himself asleep on the bathroom floor of his hotel room in Acapulco, Mexico, one Tuesday night, only to wake up to about an inch of water.
Hailing from South Carolina, Namlick was among the attendees at a mining convention in Acapulco that was disrupted by Hurricane Otis, one of the most powerful storms ever to strike Mexico. He, along with other visitors to the popular seaside resort city, was stranded in their hotels during the hurricane and is only now making their way to safety in Mexico City.
Hurricane Otis made landfall on Mexico’s southern coast early Wednesday morning as a Category 5 hurricane. By Thursday afternoon, the death toll had risen to 27.
The rapid intensification of Otis took everyone by surprise. According to Phil Klotzbach, a research meteorologist at Colorado State University, it had the fastest 12-hour intensification rate on record of any eastern Pacific hurricane in 57 years.
Namlick, a construction manager for a company called NewFields, said he had no idea the weather would turn so severe when he arrived. He was told it “was going to be just a storm,” he told USA TODAY.
A group of convention attendees found themselves trapped inside the convention center overnight due to the relentless wind and rain, as reported by Namlick. Joseph Namlick found himself
Namlick considered himself fortunate to be one of the individuals who managed to return to his hotel room at the Palacio Mundo Imperial late on Tuesday night. Hotel staff had instructed guests to “hunker down” in their rooms and keep their sliding glass doors closed. Throughout the night, the hotel provided sustenance and water to the stranded guests.
As the storm intensified and the wind velocity increased, Namlick recalled, “The storm started getting really bad, and debris started blowing.” He also noted that he could sense the building swaying from the force of the wind.
Namlick occupied a room on the fifth floor, and he mentioned that the guests in the room across from his had their sliding doors blow in, compelling them to evacuate.