ACAPULCO, Mexico, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The number of people dead and missing due to Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 storm which hammered the Mexican Pacific resort city of Acapulco last week, has risen to close to 100, authorities in the state of Guerrero said on Monday.

On Sunday afternoon, Mexico’s federal civil protection authorities said there were 48 dead, consisting of 43 in Acapulco and five in nearby Coyuca de Benitez.

Salgado provided the figures on the phone with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who during a regular government press conference urged local authorities to ensure that basic goods were being delivered to Acapulco’s population.

The cost of damage from the hurricane could climb as high as $15 billion according to estimates, and Mexico has sent some 17,000 members of the armed forces to keep order and help distribute tonnes of food and supplies in Acapulco.

The disaster struck Acapulco barely seven months before Mexico’s next presidential election, and Lopez Obrador on Monday reiterated his claim that critics were attacking his response to Otis and inflating its impact for electoral reasons.

His fiery political broadsides triggered criticism that Lopez Obrador was downplaying the gravity of the disaster.

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