Curfews, storm damage and power outages blanket Miami

Miami’s famous night life took another hit over the stormy weekend: A curfew from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. will take effect Sunday evening in Miami-Dade County due to damage from Hurricane Irma.

Several other cities in the county had imposed curfews before Hurricane Irma began approaching South Florida, but Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez had resisted doing so, even after Broward, the county just north of Miami-Dade, imposed a countywide curfew that started Saturday.

Miami-Dade’s curfew went into effect after wind and water damage from Hurricane Irma batttered Florida’s most populous county.

For example, Miami Fire Chief Joseph Zahralban confirmed Sunday afternoon that Irma blew the roof off a house and it crashed into a building next door. Zahralban told the Miami Herald that city officials confirmed the authenticity of a video of the roof failure, which was recorded near the intersection of Northeast 5th Street and 26th Avenue in Miami.

Flood waters had inundated several areas of Greater Miami, including the Brickell neighborhood, Coconut Grove and Miami Beach.

By 11:30 a.m. Sunday, television station WSVN was broadcasting images showing what appeared to be knee-deep storm surge in Brickell.

County-owned Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the top tourist attraction in Coconut Grove, had a flooded basement, Luis Espinoza, a spokesman for Vizcaya, told the Miami Herald.

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine announced that access to the oceanfront city will be “prohibited until all the roads are clear.” The mayor also said the city’s curfew from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. will continue Sunday night and Monday night.

Levine said he expected storm surge up to five feet in the flood-prone city, where airborne debris has blocked roads and knocked down power lines.

As of 1:35 p.m. Sunday, the number of power outages in tri-county South Florida topped a million: 227,050 in Palm Beach, 488,650 in Broward County and 726,610 in Miami-Dade, where 75 percent of the buildings have lost electricity.

Power outages in South Florida and across the state could last for weeks, Elaine Duke, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told the Miami Herald.

Duke and other cabinet members met at Camp David on Saturday to discuss the storm with President Trump, and she said Trump “told the cabinet this is our number one priority.” [Miami Herald] — Mike Seemuth