Hurricane Irma: Curfews Underway In Miami, Miami Beach

MIAMI, FL — A citywide curfew took effect at 7 p.m. in Miami and was to remain in effect until 7 a.m. Sunday. A similar curfew for the city of nearby Miami Beach went into effect at 8 p.m. and was to remain in effect until 7 a.m. as well. Meanwhile, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he had no plans to impose a countywide curfew on Saturday night.

The curfews coincide with the arrival of Tropical Storm force winds in parts of Miami-Dade County and as some 660,000 residents of the county are under mandatory evacuation orders.

Curfews were also in effect in nearby Broward and Palm Beach Counties though the city of Boca Raton has reportedly said that the Palm Beach curfew did not apply to its residents.

In imposing a curfew for his city, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado said on Saturday that the city has experienced power outages combined with deteriorating weather conditions and a number of homes that have been left vulnerable as people evacuated the area ahead of Hurricane Irma.

"We know of several areas of the city of Miami without electric power," Regalado said on Saturday. "Of course the police will be outside within the city as much as they can but we feel that there are many houses that are empty because people have gone to other places and we need this kind of order so we can protect the residents and of course the first responders of the city of Miami."

Under the city's emergency declaration signed on Friday, city police may stop people they encounter on the street and ask them to explain their business.

Meanwhile, Miami city police personnel assigned to the 6 p.m. to midnight "Bravo" shift were delayed for a time in getting into work on Saturday by Tropical Storm force winds. The 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. "Alpha" shift was held over for 2 hours before city officials said that the late shift should report anyway.

"Miami Police personnel assigned to 'Bravo' shift are instructed to report for duty to relieve personnel assigned to 'Alpha' shift immediately," Officer Yelitza Cedano told Patch around 8 p.m.

Mayor Tomas Regalado announces Saturday's curfew