Risk Atlas in Acapulco is from 19 years ago

The only tool to prevent risks due to disasters or natural phenomena in Acapulcoavailable on the internet for citizens, has not been updated for almost two decades.

The Atlas of Natural Hazards of Acapulco de Juárez, which is accessed through a link on the website http://www.atlasnacionalderiesgos.gob.mx/AtlasEstatales/?&NOM_ENT=Guerrero&CVE_ENT=12, was published in 2004. It contains an explanation on hurricanes based on an outdated Saffir-Simpson scale, since at that time category 4 was for when the winds of said phenomena reached between 210 and 249 kilometers per hour (km/h). As of 2012, it was adjusted to 209-251 km/h.

The document points out the risks involved in the proximity or impact of a hurricane, such as excessive rain and flash flooding.

The topic of dangers from hurricanes is based on historical records of natural disasters due to the hydrometeorological phenomena of hurricanes and cyclones," it is indicated and then lists some of the most intense meteors that have affected the port, since the category 4 hurricane. Madeleinein 1976, until Lestera category 2 registered in 1998. Also remembered is the devastating Paulineof 1997.

However, although trajectories of meteorological phenomena are identified, their impact zones are identified, and a historical account of damage is made that begins in 1912, in no section is the possibility of a category 5 hurricane indicated, as was the case of Otis.

The aforementioned atlas is not the only document on Civil protection regarding Acapulco that is outdated.

On the page http://proteccioncivil.guerrero.gob.mx/atlas-de-riesgos-guerrero/ you can consult a map with various layers of information about the dangers facing the port.

In the Basic Data-Climatology section, it is shown that wind risks cover the entire coastal strip of the state, from the municipality of Cuajinicuilapa, on the border with Oaxaca, to La Unión, bordering Michoacán, also including San Marcos, Acapulco, Atoyac de Álvarez and Zihuatanejo.

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However, the maximum wind speed predicted for that area corresponds to a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale (178 km/h-208 km/h) of between 160 and 190 kilometers per hour, 73% less than peak of 330 km/h that he recorded Otis according to monitoring by the UNAM National Tidal Service.

When reviewing the Disruptive Agents-Tropical Cyclones section, it is noted that the dangers from flooding are medium in a large part of the bay, mainly in the area that goes from the Icacos Naval Base to the Acapulco Golf Club, AC. Also, the Magallanes Fractionation and neighborhoods such as Ampliación Bellavista and Vista Alegre. The risk increases in the neighborhoods surrounding the La Sabana River, which flows down from the high areas of the port, and in the coastal area that goes from Papagayo Park to the Hornos Fractionation.

Outside the Bay, the risk is also high in the Diamante area, specifically the Tres Vidas Golf Club Subdivision, La Poza and the Luis Donaldo Colosio Housing Unit.

THEY RISE AFTER THE TRAGEDY

On the coast or in the popular neighborhoods the economy has begun to reactivate, small food businesses, crafts, pharmacies, grocery stores, taquerias and fried chicken, their owners and workers, make use of their resilience to leave behind the devastation of Otis and resume their activities.

Many of them have lost their homes and the places where they live are still uninhabitable, but they have decided to return to their jobs and resume their work, most of them as service providers, which require the opening of their sources of work, in In some cases Otis destroyed them and in others they were looted.

12 days after the hurricane, there is still debris on the Miguel Alemán coast, in the flat neighborhoods they have put lime and a fleet of water pipes has begun to distribute, the welfare pantries began to be delivered in more than 31 points, But in Acapulco there are 800 neighborhoods and almost a million inhabitants, which far exceeds the federal government's food program.

For the people of Acapulco, the best thing is that the economy resumes, for now the pharmaceutical chains of Similares and del Ahorro have already reopened in some points, and it is expected that on Monday the supermarkets will open 12 stores of the Chedraui chain.

For now, the Acapulco City Council has not managed to reactivate its main powers, such as public services, garbage collection, drinking water and public lighting.

The Federal Government assumed the security of the Port and relies on state forces, and also coordinates the removal of debris and the hygiene of the homes that were affected by the hurricane, but the city council was absent as soon as the garbage removal began with 30 units.

-Pedro Tonantzin

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