José & the WCK team scale up quickly after Hurricane Otis

 

WCK quickly scales response to Otis in Mexico Hurricane Otis made landfall along Mexico’s western coast as one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the country. The storm’s rapid intensification left countless families without time to prepare, and its strength caught many people by surprise. WCK teams are on the ground in Acapulco and other hard-hit communities providing food and water to the thousands of families in need. Otis started as a tropical depression in the Pacific Ocean before quickly turning into a massive hurricane that hit the coast of Mexico, slamming into Acapulco and smaller communities nearby. A NASA study showed that the storm strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane in a matter of hours, an incredibly rare occurrence that is likely to become much more common in the future. The study identified the cause for the rapid intensification as too-warm ocean temperatures spurred by the ongoing climate crisis.    Without enough warning to evacuate, people living on the southern Pacific coast of Mexico were forced to endure the Category 5 storm in their homes. Sia Galiana is 86 years old and lives by herself in the town of Espinalillo, and she told our team how terrifying the storm was. “I thought I was going to die,” she said. “The roof of my home disappeared in a minute.” When the storm passed, hundreds of thousands of people were left without access to water, fuel, or electricity. Landslides caused by the hurricane—which dumped 10 inches of rain on the region—made roads impassable, cutting residents off from help. World Central Kitchen’s team arrived in the midst of this chaotic aftermath and immediately began providing meals.   First arriving in Mexico City—as access to Acapulco was not yet possible—we got a hold of sandwiches, cases of water, and helicopters to provide immediate relief to impacted communities. Since arriving, the WCK team has been airlifting thousands of meals and bottles of water into areas cut off by the storm’s damage. “We have stabilized the rural communities with helicopter support [and meals] from restaurant partners in unaffected areas,” said Jason, WCK’s Chief Relief Officer, who is on the ground in Mexico. Our air deliveries are so reliable that people have begun waiting for our arrival, queuing in lines that our teams can see from the helicopters as they descend.  Reaching families in need in Acapulco was initially very challenging. Home to 900,000 residents, the city is also a popular tourist destination. People here are in urgent need of support as what food and water stocks survived the storm are quickly running out. To meet this widespread need, we established water and meal distribution sites in the city and have established a WCK Relief Kitchen to quickly scale our response.  “The situation is very complex,” said Fatima, WCK’s Senior Manager of Relief Operations for Latin America, who is also on the ground in Mexico. “Communication is slowly improving, and fuel supply has just started, but lines are very long.”    Lines are long not just for fuel, but also at tortillerias—which have been working through their stores of supplies to provide tortillas to their communities. “We are also working on supplying the local tortilla shops with supplies, as it’s the bread of life here and the shops are running out of supplies that survived the storm,” said Jason.  We have been scouting in communities, speaking with residents and restaurant owners, and trying to get a sense of where help is needed and how WCK can fill those gaps. As our teams scout, we always make sure to have food and water for the people our teams meet, or even just pass along the way. We offer tortas with cochinita pibil and beans to people walking on the road.  WCK continues to move forward, working on the logistics to get much-needed supplies into Acapulco, and create a plan to take care of immediate needs. Meanwhile, our restaurant partners are using what resources they still have access to, to create delicious, nourishing meals for their community. A well-known chef in Acapulco—Lalo Palazuelos—has offered our team the use of his restaurant Tres Fuentes to cook meals from, while the chefs and staff at other restaurants still able to safely operate after the storm cook meals from their own facilities.    As José says, “When you need medical service, you bring doctors and nurses. When you need the rebuilding of infrastructure, you bring in engineers and architects. And if you have to feed people, you need professional chefs.” Right now, Acapulco and its surrounding communities need resources and chefs, and WCK and our partner restaurants are working urgently to meet that need.  Right now, WCK is also supporting families in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Morocco, Armenia, and Ukraine. Learn more about these efforts here. SUPPORT OUR WORK