Bud lightens to tropical storm off Mexico

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico – Bud weakened to a tropical storm Friday as it headed toward a string of laid-back beach resorts and small mountain villages on Mexico’s Pacific coast south of Puerto Vallarta.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said maximum sustained winds that were once blowing at 115 mph had slowed to 70 mph Friday night.

The government of Mexico changed the hurricane warning for the coast of Mexico from Manzanillo to Cabo Corrientes to a tropical storm warning. Hurricane watches were also discontinued.

Forecasters said the storm would continue to weaken and the center would move over land late Friday or today. Rainfall was expected to accumulate from 6 to 10 inches in many spots.

A separate storm was pounding much of Cuba and the Bahamas on Friday. Cuba’s civil defense agency reported that a French citizen, Alain Manaud, and Silvestre Fortun Alvarez, of Cuba, were missing after trying to cross rain-swollen rivers, according to the government’s Prensa Latina news agency. It said a search for them was continuing.