Acapulco residents are fending for themselves in absence of aid

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https://apnews.com/article/mexico-hurricane-otis-acapulco-398e6957c0ea05e857d377d9f9c0b311

Acapulco residents are fending for themselves in absence of aid

Acapulco residents left in flooded and windblown chaos with hurricane’s toll still unknown

BY MARK STEVENSON AND MEGAN JANETSKY
Updated 1:04 AM EDT, October 28, 2023

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — In a city without water, electricity or gasoline, where desperate people have been allowed, even encouraged, to take essential goods from damaged stores since Hurricane Otis smashed Acapulco, state police officer Raúl Gallardo stood guard over a mountain of excess.

Gallardo explained the distinction authorities have been making — in some cases — between what people can take and what would end up in his pile.

People can take “what you can consume — water, tuna, mayonnaise, that you can take,” he said. What isn’t allowed is big-ticket items — “appliances, for example,” he said, swiveling to point at the refrigerators behind him. “What’s not within the basket of basic foodstuffs, you can’t take.”

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