DENNIS ALREADY ADDING TO FLOODING ISSUES IN POLK

The clouds are quite dark, and the wind has picked up here in North Lakeland. The National Weather Service shows the latest information from Lakeland Linder Regional Airport notes winds at 17 MPH with gusts to 29.

The Polk County Commission declared a state of emergency in a special meeting Friday, which allows the local government to act quickly in the event of any major situations due to Hurricane Dennis.

Although the brunt of the hurricane is still expected to keep well away from the coast, people here are especially concerned about the probablity of flooding. This is especially true in areas of south and eastern Polk County, where the heavier-than-normal rainfalls from June are already causing residences to flood.

Some residents who live along Clinch Lake in Frostproof blame some of their problems on officials opening a ditch to release water into Clinch Lake to ease flooding on nearby Crooked Lake, and water being backed up from Clinch Lake due to open ditches and undersized drainage pipes unable to handle the volume. Needless to say, the expected rainfalls from Dennis' feeder bands passing through will only aggrivate the situation greatly.

And on the situation at Crooked Lake, sewage is another problem, as some residents have removed the lids to their septic tanks in an effort to get systems to flow.

Water, water everywhere...

UPDATE: The 7:00 AM Hurricane Local Statement from the Ruskin National Weather Service office

Tornado touchdowns have already been reported in Bradenton and St. Petersburg, and wind damage in Brandon and Pinellas Park. Some power outages have been noted in the Tampa Bay area. And the Desoto County Emergency Operations Centre in Arcadia has reported 3.5 inches of rain in a 12 hour period.

BTW: I see that DeSoto County Emergency Management had scheduled a Hurricane Seminar for July 26th. A little late for that now, eh...