Mexico's government on Sunday intensified efforts to get the stricken coastal city of Acapulco back on its feet as the toll of dead and missing from a record-breaking hurricane that ravaged the iconic beach resort continued to rise.

Hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco as a Category 5 storm on Wednesday, wrecking homes, hotels and businesses with 165 mph (266 kph) winds which downed power lines and communications, leaving the city of nearly 900,000 inhabitants incommunicado.

Looting broke out as food, water and gasoline become scarce after the destruction caused by Otis, which the government on Sunday said had killed 48 people, with six people missing.

The governor of the southern state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, earlier said 36 people were unaccounted for.

A day earlier, the toll stood at 39 dead and 10 missing.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said most of his cabinet was already in or headed for Acapulco, and that he would return there later on Sunday to lead recovery efforts as thousands of soldiers and police descended on the city.

"We're going to get Acapulco back on its feet, starting with its people," he said in a video on social media.

Dozens of pieces of broken boats dotted the bay on Sunday, with smashed yachts and dinghies piled up on the shore.

The cost of damage could climb as high as $15 billion according to estimates, and Lopez Obrador said the ministers of finance and the economy would be in Acapulco on Monday. He also invited the Mexican central bank governor to travel there.

(Cover: An aerial view of damage caused by the passage of Hurricane Otis in Puerto Marques, Guerrero, Mexico, October 28, 2023. /CFP)