AlQa'dah 28, 1432, Oct 26, 2011, SPA -- Rina weakened to a category-1 hurricane Wednesday as it moved toward Cancun and other international tourist resorts on Mexico's Caribbean coast, U.S. forecasters said. While Mexican authorities started evacuations along the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Rina had "significantly weakened," with maximum sustained winds of 135 kilometers per hour (kph). The downgrade was welcome news for residents and tourists along Mexico's popular Caribbean coast. The region earlier had prepared to face a major category-3 hurricane, with winds up to 210 kph. Despite the weakening of the hurricane, the NHC warned that the storm remained "dangerous" and could cause deaths and destruction. Forecasters said Rina was expected to drop between 20 and 40 centimeters of rain on the eastern Yucatan from early Wednesday into Friday and bring a potentially destructive storm surge of 2.1 meters above normal sea levels. At 1645 GMT, the center of the hurricane was about 300 kilometers south of the Mexican tourist island of Cozumel and moving west-northwest at 8 kph, the NHC said.
