ORLANDO, Fla. -- The National Hurricane Center's new projected path of movement for Tropical Storm Fay shows the slow-moving storm hugging the coast this week and no longer strengthening into a hurricane when it makes a third landfall in Florida.

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IMAGES: Latest Fay Paths - Maps
IMAGES: Catfish In Yards -- Top Viewer Photos

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"I don't want to quantify this as good or bad -- it is just the current track," Local 6 meteorologist Eric Wilson said. "If there is good news to this forecast, it is (the storm is) only 30 miles out to sea. Yes, it is out over the Atlantic but it is not enough time and it's over cooler water so, the chance of it becoming a hurricane has been greatly reduced.

The storm was not predicted to move much Wednesday delivering 30 to 40 mph gusts to Daytona to New Smyrna Beach for a prolonged amount of time Wednesday.

"Fay is going to continue to hug the coastline," Wilson said. "If she was still over land when the models initialized, she is not projected to go out into the Atlantic very far at all."

Wednesday night, the storm will likely be located to the east of New Smyrna Beach before an early Thursday landfall in north Florida as a tropical storm.

"That is going to make Fay an issue (for Florida) for at least the next 72 hours," Wilson said. "Fay does make landfall a third time Thursday morning as a tropical storm bringing heavy rain and wind."

Tuesday's models showed Fay moving into the Atlantic and then raging into a hurricane Wednesday and early Thursday. The storm then bowed back into north Florida and hit the area as a category 1 storm on the path.

"It looks like Fay will continue to slowly ride northward," Local 6 meteorologist Rob Eicher said. "Brevard County is going to get dumped on all day long."

A possibly for flooding continues for Brevard, Volusia and Osceola counties on Wednesday.

"Nearly 10 inches of rain has fallen in southern Brevard County since Fay showed up," Wilson said. "That's almost 10 inches of rain in less than a whole day's span."

A tornado threat continues early for northern counties.

Fay Surprises Over Land

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Fay surprised forecasters Tuesday and intensified as it moved over land and through Central Florida.

"(The system) has had a weird run," Local 6 meteorologist Tom Sorrells said. "Since (morning) it has actually intensified."

Fay's winds jumped from maximum sustained gusts of 60 mph to 65 mph during a time it was expected to weaken.

"The worst thing that can happen is that people forget about Fay and deal with the rain showers as they happen and say the weekend is coming," Local 6 meteorologist Eric Wilson said.

"The damage associated with this system for us so far has been exactly as forecasted," Sorrells said. "We knew our biggest danger would be twisters happening in the afternoon."

Melbourne reported a wind gust of 40 mph Tuesday afternoon as Fay continued to pose a danger to neighborhoods.

Tornado Damages 54 Homes

Also, at least two people were injured and 54 homes damaged when a Fay-spawned tornado touched down in Brevard County.

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IMAGES: Tornado Damage

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Barefoot Bay resident Frank Amoretti reported seeing a tornado touch down in the vicinity of Brown Road and Puffin Drive west of U.S. 1 in Brevard County Tuesday afternoon.

"I saw the swirling and stuff and there was a lot of debris and everything," resident Frank Amoretti said. "As quick as it came in, it looked like it went right back up. It looks like part of a house or part of a roof and a couple of carports and a lot of aluminum and insulation and construction barricades from Mico Road."

Brevard County reported 50 structures were damaged by the tornado and nine of them were completely destroyed.

The tornado was confirmed by the National Weather Service to have touched down about an hour after it was reported, Wilson said.

The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for Brevard and Osceola counties before the damage reports.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.