Miami Mayor: Top Priority Getting Ice and Power To Elderly

MIAMI, FL — Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado said that seven out of every 10 people in his storm-ravaged city were still without power as of Tuesday and officials are particularly concerned about elderly and disabled residents, who may be isolated. Speaking in an interview with Patch, the mayor said that city officials are giving priority to those two groups as power crews go block by block to restore power to one of America's largest cities. The mayor also said that he was lifting a curfew that had been in place since Saturday but that it could be reimposed if necessary.

"We're trying to get ice to some of the elderly residents because some of them keep their medicines in ice," the mayor told Patch. "If you are a diabetic you need to have your medicines in ice." (For more hurricane news or local news from Florida, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Miami Patch, and click here to find your local Florida Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Regalado said that city officials were providing Florida Power & Light with a list of elderly and disabled residents to help prioritize the restoration of power.

On Wednesday eight residents of a Hollywood nursing home died and another 80 residents were evacuatedfrom a North Miami Beach assisted living facility.

Watch: Florida Governor: A Long Road To Recovery After Irma

"Miami seems to many a city of rich people but it's not," he explained. "We have kind of two cities. We have a city of beautiful people, glamour. But we have extreme pockets of poverty. We have elderly residents. These are the weakest link in our society because they get confused. They get anxious."

He said that city officials pleaded with FPL to get power restored to Mercy Hospital, something that the power company was able to accomplish Monday night. Power arrived just in time.

"Mercy went without power. They were running out of gas in their generator," Regalado said. " The port in Port Everglades is closed. There is no fuel coming in. That's the perfect storm. FPL last night restored power to Mercy Hospital."

He said that the dire warnings in advance of Hurricane Irma left many elderly residents feeling anxious and rightly so.

The mayor also told Patch that FPL will be providing the city with a timeline on Tuesday for when power will be restored, but that past hurricanes have resulted in lengthy outages.

"It's very hard. In my home during Andrew I spent like three weeks. It was very difficult," he recalled. "Then in Wilma, Katrina about two weeks. I know .... When you have children, they get cabin fever. The elderly get nervous."

Speaking at an earlier press conference, the mayor and city police officials said that 25 people had been arrested in looting-related offenses since in all parts of the city since the storm began feeling the effects of Hurricane Irma over the weekeend.

Regalado said that first responders from Miami Fire Rescue used a 12,000-pound police SWAT vehicle to rescue a woman who suffered a stroke during the storm.

Photo by Paul Scicchitano