Sign: ‘Enjoy your life. Carajo!’ Miami takes one last breath before Hurricane Irma

MIAMI—Stay inside, authorities warned. This storm could kill you, they said. We are not out of the woods.

But as Hurricane Irma began to swing west of Miami—avoiding what seemed for days like a devastating direct hit—those who live outside of South Florida’s evacuation zones took one last chance to breathe Saturday morning.

At Karla Bakery, in Miami’s heavily Hispanic Flagami neighborhood, long lines clamored for fresh-baked Cuban bread and guava pastelitos. Leonardo Izuierdo had already sealed his house for the storm and stocked it with provisions. But it didn’t seem like Irma had arrived, and the prospect of two days locked in with hurricane food was driving his family to stomach-rumbling despair.

“Unfortunately, when these natural disasters threaten and you’re locked indoors, all of a sudden you get an appetite,” said Izquierdo, who ordered bread, meat pastelitos and cheese-filled tequenos. “I don’t know what it is about the combination of water and flour, but it hits the spot.”

In Miami Lakes, Ozzie Gomez and Javier Guada found their Saturday morning hangout spot boarded up for Irma. So they set up some folding chairs outside the Latin American Grill and fired up their cigars. They said they’d leave before winds start howling at tropical storm speeds.

Little Havana’s Palacio de los Jugos was busy as the normal weekend rush.

And Javier Narvaez, standing ankle-deep in choppy Miami Beach seas, turned his head to the sky. In his hands, he held a sign: “Enjoy your life. Carajo!” it proclaimed, using a Spanish word that roughly translates to “d--- it.”

State, local and federal officials know Miami doesn’t like being told what to do.

Even at public shelters, some evacuees tried to smother their fear with everyday routine. At South Dade Middle School classroom, a young man had set up a TV and was leaning back in a reclining chair.

“There have been some rumors about Miami-Dade being in the clear and being safe from a hit by Hurricane Irma because we’re no longer in the cone,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said Saturday morning. “We must remain vigilant. A very serious storm is coming our way, and will be here through Sunday.”

Even so, Gimenez declined to follow the leaders of Broward and Palm Beach counties, and the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, in issuing a curfew.

While the Florida Keys and the Gulf coast face a potentially catastrophic hit, South Florida could still get hurricane-force winds, deadly storm surges, tornadoes and heavy rains.

“As many as 20 inches in places,” said National Hurricane Center specialist Mike Brennan.

Squalls and heavy gusts of wind had already started Saturday morning as Irma’s outer bands arrived in South Florida.

“Don’t be the guy or the gal who gets killed by a tree,” U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio said.

Across the state, 6.3 million Floridians were ordered to leave their homes, roughly 30 percent of the state. All day, traffic trudged north at a steady pace. Twenty-four Florida hospitals were closed for evacuation. The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority asked drivers to clear highways. Air and seaports were shut down. And more than 30,000 people in Dade and Broward were without power, long before Irma even arrived in Florida.

“This is an unbelievably massive, destructive storm. It’s a killer,” Gov. Rick Scott said during a string of early morning television appearances.

More than 650,000 Dade residents were told to leave. Many are listening.

Evacuation zones in Miami Beach and downtown Miami were largely quiet Saturday morning. The police chief of Sunny Isles Beach said 90 percent of residents had cleared out. But in South Beach and downtown, some homeless people remained on the streets. Police helped them find shelter and involuntarily committed some of those who refused to go.

Outside Miami-Dade’s public library downtown, Guatemala native Carlos Mena sought refuge at a bus bench outside the library. Asked if he would go indoors at some point later in the day, he simply shook his head: “No problem,” he said. “No hay problema.”

Many residents of South Florida trailer parks, saying they did not know how to reach public shelters, also refused to leave. Winds like Irma’s could rip their tin-can homes to bits.

For residents who did leave their homes, shelter wasn’t always easy to find.

Ricardo Arlain said he was turned away from three shelters, including one that authorities realized too late was in a flood zone,.

Miami-Dade was criticized for the county’s slow pace in opening shelters and for logistical problems in staffing and operating them. The county had 41 shelters open Saturday, and 11 were full. About 26,000 people were listed as being inside in response to an evacuation order that affected more than 600,000 Miami-Dade residents. Shelters accepting pets briefly ran out of room.