A Look at Florida's Hurricane Insurance Business
GRIFFIN: From deployment dates tot he prices at a Baghdad Internet cafe, online help for military families. We'll go surfing in our next hour on</s>CNN SUNDAY MORNING. NGUYEN: But first, good morning second city. Less than five hours until kick off as the Chicago Bears host the Philadelphia Eagles. The windy city forecast and the weather for the rest of the country, that is next.</s>GRIFFIN:  8: 12 in the morning. Here are the top stores. Mt. St. Helens doing more than just letting off steam. The volcano spewed a plume of steam earlier. Now it might have a bigger and more dangerous eruption in store. It could happened today. Evacuations are going on there. The latest contract proposal from U.S. Airways isn't getting off the ground. Leaders of the pilots union haven't decided if they'll forward the proposal to its members. It calls for an average pay cut of 18 percent.. Finally the piano man married again. Singer Billy Joel married a 23 year old named Kate Lee at his Long Island mansion. Joel is 55. Third marriage for Billy Joel.</s>NGUYEN: Congratulations to them. Well this morning we want to bring in Rob Marciano to talk about Mt. St. Helens and all the other things that are happening out there. Good morning, Rob.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Mt. St. Helens the most dramatic and interesting thing on the weather map today because the weather really turning out to be quite quiet and quite pleasant for a Sunday afternoon for the first weekend of October. And in some spots feeling a little bit more like October. Not drastically cooler across the northeast but certainly cooler than yesterday. And then this cool batch -- that colder batch of air this is going to kind of reinforce the cold shot that came through yesterday. So, as we go through the week here we'll start to see that cooling trend progress. Not quite all the way down to Florida though. You'll probably see a couple of showers pop up. South Texas and in western Texas and through New Mexico as well, but other than that looking at pretty quiet conditions. Maybe the UP of Michigan seeing a couple of showers. That is about it. Day time highs looking like this. Nice in Denver, 70 degrees there, 72 in Salt Lake, 68 San Fran, 68 in Chicago. Matter of fact, let's take the live shot from Chicago. Right now it's 37 degrees, but crystal clear, cobalt blue sky. Just a bit of a breeze in the air. You'll get return flow southwesterly winds today and that means that temperatures will be markedly warmer than they were yesterday. Look for highs to, in some spots, approach 70. So, a winner of a day across Chicago and much of the western great lakes as well as temperatures begin to moderate somewhat. Touch briefly on what's going on as far as St. Helens. Portland, Seattle radar obviously nothing showing up. It's going to be a clear day there as well. Portland here, St. Helens right about there. The winds in the upper levels of the atmosphere, way up there coming out of the north and northeast. At the lower levels they're real light and they're coming out of the southwest. So, if this explosion happens or eruption happens to the magnitude that they think is going to happen, which will be more than what we saw a few days ago, but less than what we saw in 1980, most of the ash and the fallout from this thing should go tot he north or maybe northwest or northeast, but in fairly lightly populated area. If it becomes a more intense eruption than they think and sends that plum of garbage well into the atmosphere, 20, 30,000 feet than the northeasterly winds will take over and some of that stuff will get down to the northern suburbs of Portland. So that will be interesting later on today. And I say when because these guys are saying imminent. We barely ever say that in the weather business. You know, that really puts you on the spot. So, they're pretty confidant that something is going to happen sometime today guys. So, we'll keep an eye on Mt. St. Helens.</s>NGUYEN: Yesterday at 5 p.m. they said it would happen in 24 hours, so the clock is ticking on this one.</s>MARCIANO: Yes, and the last time they said that it happened. So...</s>GRIFFIN: Believe them.</s>MARCIANO: ...I tend to believe them, yes.</s>GRIFFIN: Thanks, Rob.</s>NGUYEN: All right, Rob. Well, the hurricanes may be over for now, but cleaning up isn't over by a long shot. It is a waiting game for the thousands of Floridians affected by Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, waiting for their insurance companies to pay up. CNN's John Zarrella reports.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Roofers spent the afternoon nailing down tar paper. In less than one month it's the second temporary fix to Barbara Motice's home. After direct hits from two hurricanes, first Frances then Jeanne there's not much left. The ceilings have collapsed. There's standing water on the floor and mold is growing on walls in nearly every room.</s>BARBARA MOTICE, HURRICANE VICTIM: I'm not living here. I can't live here I'd be sick with all this mold in here.</s>ZARRELLA: Now a month after Frances, Motice still has no idea how much money she'll be getting from insurance to rebuild.</s>MOTICE: This is from the first one, yes. No I haven't had an adjuster here from the first storm yet, American Superior.</s>ZARRELLA: It appears American Superior, Motice's insurer may not be able to cover her claims or others. In the wake of four hurricanes the plantation Florida based insurance company is the first to go tot he state for help because it was overwhelmed. The company, which has 60,000 customers is facing 7,000 claims from the four storms.</s>TOM GALLAGHER, FLORIDA CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: We don't think they'll be able to handle those claims. We think they're probably going to run short of cash.</s>ZARRELLA: American Superior has voluntarily agreed to be put into rehabilitation, which means while the state believes the company can be saved it will for now be run by the Florida Department of Financial Services. Company officials told CNN they will exhaust every dollar, use every asset to pay claims. State officials say policy holders like Barbara Motice don't have to worry. The state will guarantee claims are paid and now, the process will move more quickly.</s>GALLAGHER: There will e a much larger number of adjusters that are available to them than were available under American Superior that work for the Florida Insurance Guarantee Association. And so I think they're going to get faster and quicker service.</s>ZARRELLA: State officials say here are no other companies in trouble that they know of. So far, as a result of the four storms, one million insurance claims have been file. John Zarrella, CNN Miami.</s>GRIFFIN: Understanding Islam from its role in international politics to its connections to Christianity. That is the topic we will tackle in our new SUNDAY MORNING religion segment. That is next.