Puerto Vallarta, Mexico — Hurricane Dora grew into a powerful Category 4 storm with winds of 140 mph (220 kph) Thursday as it moved past Mexico's southern Pacific coast, toppling a lighthouse and destroying some small beachside restaurants in Acapulco.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the center of the hurricane was located about 265 miles (425 kilometers) south of Cabo Corrientes, Mexico, and about 500 miles south-southeast of the Los Cabos resort on the tip of the Baja California peninsula.

Dora, a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir- Simpson scale, is expected to lose strength later today and weaken rapidly tomorrow, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 11 a.m. East Coast time. The storm is forecast to remain well offshore, the agency said.

High surf churned up by Dora will affect the southwestern Mexico coast for the next few days and will start to hit the southern Baja California Peninsula later today, the center said.