Disaster management experts speak out.

Experts on disaster management outlined potential dangers, particularly hurricanes and preventing the damage they cause, at a Building Owners and Managers Association-Long Island members-only roundtable.

Hurricanes were cited at the March 8 BOMA-LI roundtable as the most probable disasters to face Long Island's building managers. BOMA-LI roundtables provide valuable continuing education for the organization's members.

"Hurricanes are the most likely disaster to befall Long Island," said Mark P. Ellis, S.E., vice president, Risk Assessment of Thornton Tomasetti's Irvine, Calif., office, one of several experts who had come from across the country for the presentation.

The other experts were: Fletcher A. MacGregor, P.E., managing director, Specialty Global Practice Leader Natural Hazards & Emergency Management at Marsh Risk Consulting in Detroit Donald Kinnear, assistant vice president and executive general adjuster of McLarens Young International and David Harvey, vice president of Thornton Tomasetti.

In addition to hurricanes, the experts addressed the potential for tires, roof collapses and flooding.

Ellis said hurricanes present three dangers: high winds, wind-borne debris and storm surges. Storm surges, he said, "are a huge deal on the South Shore."

Noting that most insurance companies usually insure a building for damages that might be caused by a 500-year storm, MacGregor said such a storm might cause about $50,000 in damage to a hotel building in Melville valued at $25 million. He said he did not believe Long Island has as much potential exposure to a dangerous storm as other areas along the Eastern United States, because the waters that feed these storms are cooler off the Island.

The next BOMA-LI event, open to all members of the real estate industry, is scheduled for April 12, 2007.