Cleanup efforts under way after category 5 story hit Mexico’s Pacific coast and tore through Guerrero state.

Otis hit the beach resort city of Acapulco as a category 5 storm early on Wednesday and tore through the southern state of Guerrero, largely cutting off communications and road links with the region.

Photos of Acapulco show roads full of mud and debris and buildings that sustained heavy damage. More than 500 emergency shelters were opened for residents.

Thousands of Mexican military members have been sent to assist with clean-up operations.

“Unfortunately, we received word from the state and city governments that 27 people are dead and four are missing,” Secretary of State for Security Rosa Icela told reporters on Thursday.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that the deaths occurred around Acapulco, but provided few details. He acknowledged that the government was late in arriving because of the havoc Otis left behind.

Lopez Obrador, who made it into Acapulco late Wednesday, said the destruction was so complete in the impact zone that not a single power line pole remained standing.

“What Acapulco suffered was really disastrous,” Lopez Obrador said.

The category 5 storm was one of the most powerful to hit the Central American nation in years.

On Tuesday, some residents were caught off guard as the storm quickly strengthened from a milder tropical storm to a deadly category 5 that hit the coast with winds of up to 165mph (270 km/h) in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The country’s defence ministry has said that nearly 8,400 members of the army, air force, and national guard have been dispatched to help.

Governor Evelyn Salgado said in a social media post that the government was working to restore electricity and drinking water pumps in Acapulco, a famous resort city on Mexico’s Pacific Coast with nearly one million residents. Schools remain closed for the second day in a row.

“I took shelter in the bathroom, and thankfully, the door held,” said Pablo Navarro, a car parts worker who had temporary lodging in a hotel. “But there were some rooms where the wind blew out the windows and the doors.”

The city’s airport is also out of commission, with the storm wrecking the control tower and blocking road access.