Although, conventionally, hurricanes are measured by their peak intensity, how quickly they reach that intensity and how rapidly they approach land matters enormously.
A tropical storm isn’t an insignificant threat, and what became Otis surely would’ve damaged Acapulco even if it hadn’t ever intensified.
But a Category 5 is a threat of a different order, requiring an entirely different scale of preparatory response.
You simply can’t evacuate a city of one million in just a few hours — at least, it’s never been managed before.
It was the surprise of the storm’s transformation, with few of the conventional forecasting models predicting any significant intensification at all.
Persons:
Otis, hadn’t, it’s, “ Otis, ”, Kerry Emanuel, you’ve, “, Emanuel
Organizations:
Atlantic
Locations:
Acapulco