Rick grew from a Category One to Category Four storm in about two days and is currently moving along Mexico's Pacific coast. Residents of Acapulco have been warned that it might trigger landslides and flooding in the area.

"Satellite imagery indicates that Rick has become a Category Five hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph [260 kmph]," the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Rick is expected to move along the Mexican coast during the next five days and to make landfall at the Baja California peninsula next week.

About a dozen of tropical cyclones have been registered in the Pacific in this hurricane season. In early September, Hurricane Jimena has destroyed several dozen houses in Mexico's Mulege and Comondu municipalities, killing one person and forcing the evacuation of at least 6,000.