PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico — Hurricane Bud lost a little of its sting early Friday, but remained a potent Category 2 storm as it headed toward a string of laid-back beach resorts and small mountain villages on Mexico’s Pacific coast south of Puerto Vallarta.

Authorities canceled school in 11 communities expected to be hit by heavy rains in Jalisco state, and emergency workers were preparing emergency shelters, many of which would be located in empty school classrooms.

Heavy rains and 6-foot high waves had already started pelting Melaque, a beach town on the Bahia de Navidad, about an hour’s drive east of the sparsely populated stretch of coast where the hurricane’s center is expected to come ashore.

Bud had been a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph late Thursday, but it was down to near 110 mph early Friday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Bud was expected to weaken further before hitting the coast late in the day, still at hurricane force.

The storm was centered about 105 miles southwest of Manzanillo and moving north-northeast near 8 mph.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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