Short Supplies Increase Frustrations In Florida After Wilma; Insurers Pull Out Of Florida.  White House Awaits Possible Indictments; Damage Estimate For Wilma $10 Billion
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins, in for Anderson Cooper. In Florida Hurricane Wilma is long gone, but recovery is just beginning. 360 starts now. Two days after Wilma blew through south Florida, there is much to be done and many obstacles to doing it. At this moment, Florida Power & Light says they have reconnected more than 600,000 customers, but have some three million customer still to go. For many it could be two weeks before power is restored, in some counties, nearly a month. It was another day of long lines and short tempers. People waiting for hours to pick up food, water, ice and other supplies. And ten deaths are now being blamed on Wilma, double the number yesterday. And 17,000 people remain in shelters tonight across south Florida. Nearly 10,000 Americans still stranded in Mexico, where they were vacationing when Wilma hit. Two days after Hurricane Wilma roared across Florida, supplies, food, water, electricity are all now running low. Lines are getting long, and frustration levels are running high. It's easy to focus on the big picture, major floods and damage. But for thousands of ordinary people, out of the spotlight, their whole life has become a long, difficult struggle. But there are those that don't just cope; they rise above it, sometimes with surprising grace. CNN's David Mattingly reports.</s>DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Day two after Hurricane Wilma, and Marilyn Cramer (ph) of Hollywood, Florida, is shopping like her life depends on it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take it while they've got it.</s>MATTINGLY: Maneuvering through one of the few supermarkets open with generator power, the aisles are dark, more hectic than before a holiday.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody took my cart.</s>MATTINGLY: Some things like fresh produce are in short supply.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No bananas.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No bananas.</s>MATTINGLY: A half hour later, four cans of low sodium soup and two packs of water will have to do. She wishes she could find more, but that's all she'll be able to carry.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't grow old. That's my advice to you.</s>MATTINGLY: Because of no electricity, the elevator's out in her high-rise building, and 74-year-old Marilyn Cramer lives alone on the 11th floor.</s>MATTINGLY (on camera): How are you doing?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need to rest just a little bit.</s>MATTINGLY (voice-over): With nothing more than a flashlight and determination, she makes it up the 160 steps. (on camera): Where would you like me to put the water?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, maybe on the floor would be good.</s>MATTINGLY (voice-over): There's no damage to the condo itself, but it's comfort is compromised. No lights, no air conditioning, and sometimes no water.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the water is on, I either take a shower or flush the toilets or wash the dishes.</s>MATTINGLY: Cramer considers herself among the lucky. Trying to be self-sufficient during a time marked by long lines, confusion, and growing impatience. For the second straight day on Hollywood, trucks loaded with ice and water kept people waiting. And the line for cold lunches at the Salvation Army grew longer, as residents ran out of supplies.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have three children. We have absolutely nothing. We have no water left, no ice left, no food.</s>MATTINGLY: But like millions of others in the dark since Wilma hit, Marilyn Cramer is managing to get buy with little more than a good attitude to keep her going.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In life, as in the dance, grace glides on bandaged feet. So, what's the point of pissing and moaning. Like, sure, my heart's pounding. Sure my knees were feeling -- so, what else is new? You know, you just do it.</s>MATTINGLY: Words we could probably all live by in these, what could be many post-hurricane days -- Heidi (sic).</s>COLLINS: Well, David, you found an extraordinary woman there. All right, thanks so much for that tonight. In the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma, it's become the magic word in Florida: patience. Governor Jeb Bush and other local leaders have been surging residents struggling after the storm to take it easy. Help, they say, is on the way. But two days after Wilma hit, patience is a little hard to come by, especially when the cause of a lot of people's frustrations is the federal government. CNN's Jeanne Meserve looks at the latest round of FEMA troubles.</s>JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At one distribution point, there was nothing to distribute. Demand had far outstripped supply.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No ice. No water. So, I'm still left with less gas than I came over here with, and still no ice and no water.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you frustrated?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm beyond that point.</s>MESERVE: The mayor of Miami-Dade said he was frustrated, angered and disappointed.</s>MAYOR CARLOS ALVAREZ, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY: It's the process and how it's structured. And it's flawed.</s>MESERVE: Governor Jeb Bush tried to shush the criticism, particularly of</s>FEMA. GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: I'm going to have a no criticize zone established as we focus on recovery. And if anybody wants to blame anybody, let them blame me. Don't blame FEMA. This is our responsibility, and we are doing a good job.</s>MESERVE: Plenty of Floridians disagree.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People get aggravated because they -- nobody knows what's going on. They was confused.</s>MESERVE: Officials blame a shortage of fuel for trucks, debris in the road, unexpectedly large demand, and a storm that defied predictions.</s>CRAIG FUGATE, DIR., FLORIDA DIV. OF EMER. MGMNT: For the life of me, I always thought the hurricane hit on one coast, weakened when it got to the other coast. This one doesn't.</s>MESERVE: The secretary of Homeland Security promised things will get better.</s>MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: There are large aircraft, C-130s, C-17s, that currently are on stand-by. They are going to go to other places in the country where we can get water and ice, load them up and fly them out here overnight.</s>MESERVE: On Thursday, more than 500 trucks are expected to disperse more supplies to distribution points.</s>MESERVE: Officials at all levels of government turned some of the criticism back on citizens, saying they had ample time to stock up on supplies and should have -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: In Miami-Dade County tonight, Jeanne Meserve, thank you. A different kind of storm surge is headed for Florida, a flood of insurance rates hikes. The numbers Wilma left behind are staggering enough. Damage estimates run from six to $10 billion for a hurricane that raced across the state in just seven hours. Insurance companies say rebuilding costs are too high and insurance rates too low. Somebody is going to have to pay, and you can guess who. CNN's Gerri Willis reports.</s>GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Battered by hurricanes and by losses totaling billions of dollars, insurers are pulling out of Florida in droves. It wasn't supposed to be this way. After Hurricane Andrew 13 years ago, insurance companies threatened to leave Florida. They persuaded the state to guarantee insurance for homes on Florida's volatile coastline, protecting the private insurance companies from the riskiest policies. The state created Citizens Property as an insurer of last resort, backed by payments on everyone else's policies around the state. But now insurers are again refusing to write policies in Florida, saying state law keeps premiums too low, and losses to high. They say Florida hasn't held up its side of the bargain.</s>ROB HARTWIG, INSURANCE INFORMATION INSTITUTE: What is fair to Floridians is if Floridians pay a premium that is commensurate with the risk that is being assumed by insurance companies, and that's not happening today. Whether we're talking about private insurers or the state-run insurance company, everybody is losing catastrophic amounts of money. That means premiums are woefully inadequate in the state.</s>WILLIS: Florida officials agree premiums have to rise, but they say for every insurance company that leaves, another will come in.</s>TOM GALLAGHER, FLORIDA CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: We're encouraging people to be in the insurance business in Florida. Would we like to have more insurers writing more? Absolutely. We sure would.</s>WILLIS: But it remains to be seen whether the insurance system in Florida will work or will it have to find another way to cover losses that continue to run in the billions of dollars? Gerri Willis, CNN, New York.</s>COLLINS: Still to come on 360, you've seen the lines, you've heard the frustration. Is any relief in sight for the hurricane victims? We will talk to the mayor of Broward County about the progress there. Plus, Halloween comes early in Washington. Why this man has made some powerful people a bit scared tonight. The latest on the CIA leak investigation. And ...</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know this person. I want to know the myth that's out there the average American. I want to know the real person.</s>COLLINS: A nationwide search for the average American ends with a guy named Bob. There he is. His story and every man's sort of tale, coming up.