MARQUELIA, Mexico >> Former Hurricane John dissipated over Mexico on Tuesday after barreling into the country’s southern Pacific coast overnight, leaving two dead and a trail of destruction in its path.

Currently a tropical depression, John was 70 miles northwest of Acapulco and moving northwest at 3 mph as it dawdled along the coastal mountains and continued to weaken.

John grew into a Category 3 hurricane in a matter of hours Monday and made landfall about 80 miles east of the resort of Acapulco, near the town of Punta Maldonado, with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph before declining to a tropical storm after moving inland. It was downgraded on Tuesday to remnants with maximum sustained wind speeds of 35 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Mexican authorities discontinued all tropical storm warnings.

It blew tin roofs off houses, triggered mudslides and toppled scores of trees, officials said Tuesday.

Evelyn Salgado, the governor of the coastal state of Guerrero, said two people died when the storm sent a mudslide crashing into their house on the remote mountain of Tlacoachistlahuaca, further from the coast.

After warning that the potentially catastrophic flash flooding and mudslides in some Mexican states, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the main concern on Tuesday morning was flash flooding in parts of southern and southwestern Mexico in the coming days.

Lincer Casiano Clemente, the mayor of the town of Marquelia, near where the hurricane hit on the coast, said early Tuesday that “there are a lot of houses, mainly the ones with sheet roofing, where the force of the air blew off the roofing.”

The mayor said no deaths or injuries had been reported in Marquelia so far, something he attributed to his ability to warn residents of the storm’s approach. But power was knocked out along large parts of the coast, and highways were blocked by fallen trees. The government said some 60,000 people remained without power.

“We’ve never seen such strong gusts,” the mayor said. By Tuesday morning, people were out looking for food, he said.

Monday’s unexpected surge in strength caught scientists, authorities and residents of the area by surprise, something AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Matt Benz attributed to warmer oceans, which add fuel to hurricanes.