Mexico City - Hurricane Rick gathered more momentum on Saturday off Mexico's Pacific coast, packing winds reaching 260 kilometres per hour, weather officials reported. The Mexican weather service said the storm, still some 400 kilometres offshore, was moving in a north-westerly direction parallel to the coastline. The hope was that the storm would not strike land in the coming week.
Coastal areas in the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Michoacan were on alert.
Rick is the seventh hurricane of the season in the Pacific.
Only one hurricane has made landfall this year. In late August, Hurricane Jimena caused flooding in the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico.
