I have family in Mulberry/Lakeland and have not been able to contact them since yesterday afternoon. This was before it was upgraded to Cat 4 and they were clueless then as to the path of the storm.
The phones were acting funny this afternoon. I tried calling my parents twice and got nothing but hiss. Then my dad called back and said that I didn't let the phone ring long enough. I told him I didn't even hear it ringing!!! (At least they have caller ID and knew it was me calling ;-).
My mom was actually born in Lake Wales, after her parents moved down right after the big Crash of 1929. He lost his shirt in the commodities market and heard about this City Clerk job in Lake Wales. So they moved. But when my mom was a little older, they moved back to Illinois because the schools were so crummy (even back then). Then my grandparents moved back down there in the 1960's and we used to visit them every summer. I've shopped at the Publix in Bartow mentioned in this story :-).