page_title: Hurricane Pauline
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Pauline / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Español: Plaza de la Esperanza 9 de Octubre, conocida también como Monumento a los caídos, en honor a las víctimas del Huracán Paulina en su paso por la ciudad de Acapulco, México la madrugada del 9 de octubre de 1997. Ofrendas y velas a diez años de la tragedia adornan la placa que reza Somos una familia hermanados por la ciudad, que vive, que ha vivido, que vivirá. Se ubica sobre la Avenida Cuauhtémoc de la ciudad en el puente del río del Camarón, corriente que causó la muerte de muchas personas.
context_page_description: Hurricane Pauline was one of the deadliest Pacific hurricanes to make landfall in Mexico. The sixteenth tropical storm, eighth hurricane, and seventh major hurricane of the 1997 Pacific hurricane season, Pauline developed out of a tropical wave from Africa on September 16, 1997, moving across South America and into the Pacific Ocean. On October 5, the depression intensified into a tropical storm early the next day and by October 7, Pauline had reached hurricane intensity. It initially moved eastward, then turned northwestward and quickly strengthened to reach peak winds of 135 mph. It paralleled the Mexican coastline a short distance offshore before weakening and making landfall near Puerto Angel, on October 9, and dissipated the next day.
  Hurricane Pauline produced torrential rainfall along the Mexican coastline, peaking at 32.62 inches in Puente Jula. Intense flooding and mudslides in some of the poorest areas of Mexico killed between 230 and 500 people, making it one of the deadliest Eastern Pacific storms in recorded history.
context_section_description: Volunteers from the Mexican Red Cross quickly went to disaster areas with search and rescue teams, including using specially trained dogs to search for hurricane victims trapped under muddy areas of Acapulco. By four days after the storm each team was finding one or two corpses per day, with officials stating the search could take weeks. In Guerrero, the teams rescued a total of 35 people from hazard. Hours after the hurricane passed through the area, relief works traveled by boat through flooded areas to assist the worst-hit areas. The Red Cross provided food, water, clothing, blankets, water purification supplies, milk powder and other non-perishable foods, and medical supplies to those staying in government shelters in Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Chiapas. The Mexican Red Cross also set up shelters to house and feed hundreds of displaced people, and by four days after the storm, the Red Cross distributed 100 tonnes of relief supplies to hurricane victims. Medical workers were also deployed to the area to aid the injured.
  Officials set up emergency water purification plants in Acapulco, though water remained largely unavailable. Water trucks were sent to the city, with thousands standing in line for fresh water. Tourists in luxury hotels of Acapulco, for the most part generally unaffected by the hurricane, and rapidly recovered while other parts of the city remained devastated. Hotels were forced to use bottled water and ration their available water to as little as possible to provide water for the rest of the city. Extreme price gouging occurred in the city following the hurricane, with one consumer protection official reporting shopkeepers charging 200 percent more for milk, 500 percent more for tortillas, and 1000 percent more than usual for water. Even though the government was blamed for lack of warnings and water shortages, Ernesto Zedillo, the president of Mexico at that time, cut his vacation in Europe short to respond to the catastrophe.  Government officials set up 39 aid centers for Acapulco citizens, though some residents were unable to get food and water. Some residents suspected than the President and his Institutional Revolutionary Party of taking aid supplies for their own purposes. The president promised to seek charges and decided to close aid centers in favor of opening soup kitchens. Despite having the food, the Mexican army did not set up the kitchens, nor was aid distributed at the aid centers.
  Most of Acapulco remained closed for at least a week after the hurricane. Initially, authorities around Acapulco gave preference to clean up tourist areas, which resulted in the scenic highway from the hotels to the airport being quickly fixed. Tourism greatly decreased following the hurricane, causing some hotels to charge 40 percent less than normal in an attempt to bring people back. One airline offered two plane tickets for the price of one from Mexico City to Acapulco. Most hotels were almost completely back to normal around a month after the hurricane.
caption: Memorial in Acapulco to honor the victims from Pauline
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