Eta moves into the warm waters of the Gulf and threatens to hit Florida again, which is under alert on the west coast near the densely populated Tampa Bay region.
The cyclone is moving north with winds of 70 miles per hour (112 kilometers).
By Wednesday morning, Eta had become a hurricane again but then weakened to a tropical storm hours later as it passed near the west coast, where heavy rains and strong winds are registered.
The National Hurricane Center also issued a hurricane watch for a 120-mile (nearly 200-kilometer) stretch that includes Tampa and St. Petersburg.
The notice extends from Anna Maria Island, south of St. Petersburg, to Yankeetown, forcing authorities in some counties to send their students home and order the closure of schools by Thursday.
In Tampa, Busch Gardens theme park announced it is closed Wednesday and several Veterans Day events in the area have been canceled.
The phenomenon also overflowed rivers and flooded coastal areas in Cuba.
Some 25,000 people were evacuated and there were no reports of deaths as of Tuesday, although the rain continued.
Record storms and hurricanes
Victoria Rodriguez, left, and Angela Mojica walk on a flooded street in Diftwood Acres in the wake of Tropical Storm Eta Tuesday in Davie, Florida.
AP
This was the 28th named storm in an intense Atlantic hurricane season.
And on Monday night, it was followed by storm number 29: Theta, thus surpassing the historical record of storms and hurricanes reached in 2005.
A new study indicates that hurricanes are not only more recurrent but also maintain their strength longer once they make landfall, causing further destruction in their wake, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Warmer ocean waters due to climate change likely cause hurricanes to lose energy more slowly because they act as a fuel reserve tank for moisture, the research, published in the journal Nature, said Wednesday.
The study examined 71 Atlantic hurricanes that made landfall since 1967.
First hit in Florida
The storm already made landfall in the Florida Keys on Sunday, causing flooding in urban areas and homes in Miami-Dade County.
"I've never seen this, never, not so deep," said Anthony Lyas, who has lived since 1996 in a Fort Lauderdale neighborhood that was flooded Sunday.
Lyas says she heard water and debris hit her home overnight as the storm crossed Florida.
Destruction in Central America
The storm hit Central America as a Category 4 hurricane and caused dozens of deaths and disappearances from Mexico to Panama, before moving to the Gulf early Monday.
The worst consequences have been suffered in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and in southern Mexico.
In total, dozens of deaths have already been recorded and more than 100 people are still missing in the Central American area.
There was also material damage due to landslides and mud that overwhelmed dozens of houses.
Eta leaves about 60 dead and two million affected by the floods in Honduras
Nov. 11, 202002: 10
In Mexico, the states of Chiapas and Tabasco decreed a state of emergency due to catastrophic floods and accounted for about 30 deaths and more than 180,000 victims.
In some municipalities of Tabasco, the accumulated water exceeded nine feet in height and thousands of families lost all their possessions.
Due to the humanitarian crisis caused by Eta in Guatemala
, the president, Alejandro Giammattei, announced that he will request TPS, the temporary protected status, for his citizens in the United States, so that they can work and send money to their families.
In the rural community of Quejá, in San Cristóbal Verapaz, landslides caused by the rains buried dozens of people under tons of mud.
A young man carries his sister for hours to save her from the disaster caused by Eta in Guatemala
Nov. 10, 202002: 05
With information from the Associated Press.