Bud dumps heavy rain on Mexico's pacific coast

The remnants of the first hurricane of the 2012 season, Bud, dumped heavy rain along Mexico's coast early on Saturday but caused little damage before it turned back into the Pacific. The storm, which on Friday had threatened to hit land with hurricane-force winds, lost strength as it neared the coast and it was downgraded to a tropical depression early on Saturday. Strong winds whipped the area's beaches and rain drenched coastal roads but there were no reports of injuries. "Right now, we're just doing some clean-up work, especially along the beaches, but nothing more," said Gilberto Grijalva, head of local emergency services in Cihuatlan, a town in Jalisco state. Just south of Cihuatlan in the port city of Manzanillo, Bud toppled trees and washed out some roads but drainage ditches did not overflow as they did during last year's Hurricane Jova. Jova hit in almost the same area in October, causing at least four deaths and destroying infrastructure and houses in towns near the port, Mexico's biggest on the Pacific coast. The port, which ships cars, cattle, metals and tequila to Asian and U.S. markets, closed on Friday as a precaution but was due to reopen at midday on Saturday, said port director Flor de Maria Cañaveral. Mexico has no significant oil installations on the Pacific coast. Most of Mexico's oil platforms and exporting ports are in the Gulf of Mexico and affected by storms in the Atlantic, where forecasters are expecting a "near-normal" hurricane season this year with up to 15 tropical storms and four to eight hurricanes.