Damage is seen at a yacht club in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, Mexico, on Saturday. AP

Kristian Vera stood on an Acapulco beach Saturday looking out toward dozens of sunken boats, including three of her own, all marked by floating buoys or just poking out of the water.

Despite losing her livelihood in hurricane Otis’ brutal pass through Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, the 44-year-old fisher felt fortunate. That morning, she had watched a body pulled from the water and had seen the families coming and going, looking for their loved ones.

Mexican authorities raised Otis’ official toll to 39 dead and 10 missing Saturday. But Vera and others suggested that number will likely grow, in part because of the number of people who rode out on boats during what had started as a tropical storm and ended as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane on Wednesday.

Vera took turns with four others swimming out with empty gas jugs for flotation to try to raise their sunken boats from the shallow harbour.

Leaning against a small wooden fishing boat like her own, tipped on its side on a beach strewn with trash and fallen trees, Vera explained that some of the people who died were either fishers caring for their boats or yacht captains who were told by their owners that they needed to make sure their boats were OK when Otis was still a tropical storm.

"That night I was so worried because I live off of this, it’s how I feed my kids,” Vera said. "But when I began to feel how strong the wind was, I said, ‘Tomorrow I won’t have a boat, but God willing Acapulco will see another day.’”

A man looks at damages caused by the passage of Hurricante Otis in Puerto Marques, Mexico. AFP

Earlier Saturday, Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said in a recorded video message with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador posted to the platform X that the probable cause of death for the 39 was "suffocation by submersion.” She said the victims had not yet been identified and that investigations continue.

The new death toll was an increase of 12 over the initial tally of 27 announced on Thursday. But the storm’s human toll was becoming a point of contention as local media reported the recovery of more bodies and López Obrador criticized opponents for trying to make it a political issue.

Rodríguez also said the number of missing rose to 10. Hundreds of families have been awaiting word from loved ones.

In Acapulco, government workers and volunteers cleared streets, gas station lines wrapped around the block for what fuel was to be had, and some lucky families found food essentials as a more organized relief operation took shape four days after the storm hit.

View of damages caused by the passage of Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, Guerrero State, Mexico, on Saturday. AFP

Military personnel and volunteers worked along Acapulco’s main tourist strip. They sliced through fallen palm trees and metal signs. Cellphone signals were partially recovered near some of the city’s most luxurious hotels, and authorities placed a charging station for people to charge their phones.

But on the periphery of the city, neighborhoods remained in total chaos. The government presence found in the touristic center was not visible in other neighborhoods. With no signal, with no water and no food, families and the elderly trudged through foot-deep mud and flooded streets to get to large warehouses someone had found full of food, taking bags of food and liquids.

Associated Press