ACAPULCO, Mexico — At least 48 people died when Category 5 Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, most of them in Acapulco, Mexican authorities said Sunday as the death toll continued to climb and families buried loved ones.

Mexico’s civil defense agency said in a statement that 43 of the dead were in the resort city of Acapulco and five in nearby Coyuca de Benitez. Guerrero state’s governor had earlier raised the number of missing to 36 from 10 a day earlier. The death toll increased after authorities had raised it to 39 on Saturday.

In Acapulco, families held funerals for the dead on Sunday and continued the search for essentials while government workers and volunteers cleared streets clogged with muck and debris from the powerful Category 5 hurricane.

Kathy Barrera, 30, said Sunday that her aunt’s family was buried under a landslide when tons of mud and rock tumbled down onto their home. Her aunt’s body was found with the remains of their three children ranging in age from 2 to 21. Her uncle was still missing. Separately, Barrera’s own mother and brother also remained missing.

“The water came in with the rocks, the mud and totally buried them,” Barrera, who was standing outside a local morgue, said of her aunt’s family.

“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.’”

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

The new death toll was an increase of 12 over the initial tally of 27 announced Thursday. But the storm’s human toll was becoming a point of contention. Rodríguez also said the number of missing rose to 10.

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.

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 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 tourist center was not visible in other areas. With no signal, no water, and no food, people young and old trudged through foot-deep mud and flooded streets to get to large warehouses someone had found full of food. They carried away bags of food and liquids.

Aid has been slow to arrive. The storm’s destruction cut off the city of nearly 1 million people for the first day, and because it intensified so quickly on Tuesday little to nothing had been staged in advance.

Authorities had the difficult task of searching for the dead and missing.

One military officer, who did not want to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that searchers in his area had found at least six bodies and that his own unit had found one. It was difficult to find bodies because they were often covered in trees and other debris, he said.

Most families anxiously hunted for water, with some saying they were rationing their supplies. The municipal water system was out because its pumps had no power.

Officials said the military presence would grow to 15,000 in the area, and López Obrador called on the armed forces to set up checkpoints in the city to avoid robberies.

The president said the national electric company told him that service had been restored to 55% of customers in the affected area but that more than 200,000 homes and businesses remained without power.

The federal civil defense agency tallied 220,000 homes that were damaged by the storm, he said.

Associated Press writer Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this report

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