The center of Frances --- or, what's left of it --- is approaching Polk County, and the winds have decidedly picked up over the past couple of hours.

The front of my building is littered with shingles picked up from the neighbouring building. I went downstairs and looked at the roof to see how many from my building had been taken off. It doesn't look as though many, if any at all.

Watching WFLA's coverage from Tampa, one of their reporters who is south of Lakeland is noting some damage in at least one mobile home park. One interesting issue here is that after Hurricane Andrew forced some counties across Florida to toughen standards for mobile and manafactured homes to be habitable, our County Commission (which simply can't keep their lips off the backsides of the developers/builders/park owners) didn't follow suit. As a result, some park owners simply "hopscotched" their older mobile homes ---which would not have met the tougher standards --- to Polk County.

My son tried to take advantage of one of the brief breaks in the weather to pick up some drinks at the 7-11 three blocks away. Tough luck: It's closed. He said U.S. 98 is near deserted, a good sign that most people are smart enough to take heed of the warnings and stay inside.

Listening to the amateur radio operators send in their reports to the Red Cross office in Winter Haven, at least one shelter is reportedly without power as of noon.

We're still plugging away...