Well, everyone here in our neck of Lakeland is safe and sound, thankfully. A very, very, very rocky run through the early morning pre-dawn hours, then a ridiculously painful romp through the late morning hours. Lost electricity around 8:30am, but (praise God!) power is back up at 7:45pm or so.

Winds were hideously powerful, far worse a hit than Charley or Frances licked on us. Large oak tree in backyard came crashing down onto apartment building immediately to the side of us, and not on us. About 10 huge oaks are down in our complex altogether. Massive oaks wiped out numerous powerlines, and blocked Shepherd Rd. completely towards County Line Road.

Took long drive to check in on grandfather. Every single block sees an ancient oak down, huge trunks ripped out of grounds. Powerlines dangling dangerously nearly everywhere, with some power poles leaning 45 degrees to the side (Shepherd Road, Memorial). Tree down ontop of 2 story house on S. Florida. Lost an entire plaza with Outback, Quiznos, and Beef O'Bradys to possible sinkhole on S. Florida. Roofs damaged at a few schools in area, including new roof put on school that lost entire roof to Charley.

Not surprised that schools are not in session tomorrow, and would doubt they'll be in for Tuesday, given the school damage and massive debris clutter around town that we saw. Almost entire city of Lakeland is without power, and they claim 90% of Polk is offline. I'm personally annoyed that USF in Tampa will be in session tomorrow, and do not believe I am going to class tomorrow evening. (To heck with them, the roads are going to be too dangerous even tomorrow night...)

All in all, we are truly blessed. Once again, the finger of destruction poked everywhere around us, and we dodged it. It got very scary for awhile. I did not get a chance to go out 540 and look in on Colleen's area, but I would say that there's a good chance she's out of power, and the roads are probably dodgy with tons of trees down. Ironically I'm only about 15 miles away from her, and about at the same latitude, just farther over by the county line.

Based on damage swaths in town, I would swear the eye passed right through mid Lakeland. Down on the south side, total tree devastation, about 1 large one down every block with many street signals down or dangling, power out. Get to about mid area (Beacon Rd.) area, and the damage is sparser with power still on. Get about 5 more miles north (around maybe US 92), and train crossing arms are all trashed, trees down on tracks, and damage to businesses everywhere. (Including the beloved Southside Cleaners story with its witty sayings sign - you'd know it if you know Lakeland)

Truly something else. Get time tomorrow and I'll zip up my 4megapixel and do some damage pictures and get them online. If you want to get an idea, hit up on Lakeland Ledger and check the pictures off the main page. It's surreal.

Thanks for being there everyone! It's been a fun ride - let's NOT do this again...