Hurricane Rick Weaker, Still Dangerous

Hurricane Rick has decreased to a Category 3 storm as it swirls off Mexico's Pacific coast but it is still a dangerous storm that forecasters say could veer into resorts on the Baja California peninsula.

A hurricane watch has been issued for southern Baja California in Mexico.

Rick's maximum sustained winds decreased early Monday to near 125 mph. The hurricane is centered about 380 miles south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and moving northwest near 10 mph.

Forecasters called on all those in Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula and along the mainland coast to closely monitor the storm, adding Rick would remain an extremely dangerous hurricane for the next day or two before losing some punch over cooler waters.

The hurricane was projected to stay well off the Mexican coast for days before closing in on the Baja California Peninsula as a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane sometime Wednesday, forecasters said.

Authorities in the resort city of Acapulco closed the port to small craft after Rick kicked up heavy waves and gusts of wind.

Acapulco's Civil Protection Department had warned that rains from the outer bands of the storm could cause landslides and flooding in the resort city, but no such effects were reported.

Rick was the second-strongest hurricane in the eastern North Pacific since 1966, when experts began keeping reliable records, said Hurricane Center meteorologist Hugh Cobb.

The strongest was Hurricane Linda, which generated maximum winds of 185 mph in September 1997.

"Rick is probably going to go into the record books as one of the most rapidly intensifying hurricanes," Cobb said.

The storm was generating some waves up to 50 feet high near its core, Cobb said, adding there were ship reports of 16-foot seas elsewhere off the Mexican coast.

He said the storm's danger should not be underestimated, however, as Rick will still have the potential as a Category 1 or Category 2 storm to provoke heavy rains and unleash mudslides.

Cobb said it is still uncertain whether the eye of the storm will make landfall.

Rick was forecast to pass early in the week near Socorro Island, about 300 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas. The island is a nature reserve with a small Mexican Navy post and it hosts scuba-diving expeditions in winter months.