Rina downgraded to tropical storm

Data from a hurricane-hunter plane Thursday indicated Hurricane Rina faded to a tropical storm as it approached Mexico. Rina's forward progress was slowing down and its winds had ebbed to around 70 miles per hour when the hurricane hunter flew into the storm about 90 miles south of the resort city of Cozumel. Rina was chugging northward at around 6 miles per hour and was expected to turn more to the east. The storm was expected to weaken further over the next 48 hours and was not considered a threat to the United States. The National Hurricane Center said the storm was still expected to dump 3-6 inches of rain over the Yucatan Peninsula once it made landfall late Thursday. Mexico posted tropical-storm warnings in the area. People on the islands of Holbox and Mujeres were being evacuated, and about 50,000 coastal residents whose homes were considered "vulnerable" moved inland to stay with relatives or friends, Juan Gabriel Granados, operations director for Quintana Roo civil protection in Chetumal, told CNN.