And so it goes...

It seems so quiet right now. Outside my apartment in North Lakeland, the kids are playing just like any other Saturday afternoon. But the Emergency Management folks down in Bartow have ratcheted up their work, opening up six shelters at 4PM to add to the nine plus one special needs shelter which opened two hours earlier. That is because they had issued a mandatory evacuation of mobile homes and low lying areas, something which had not been done here for hurricanes Charley and Frances. A mandatory evacuation is something normally heard for residents in the coastal counties, not here in the Center Of It All (BTW: That's my term, not the EcoDevelopment geeks in Bartow).

Oh, and it's rather fitting that TWO DIVAS were visiting Polk County at the same time: Jeanne, as we all know, but Cher was bringing her farewell tour to a sold out audience at The Lakeland Center tonight; that will not proceed as scheduled.