Scientists at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR) are being sponsored by international insurance companies to predict which regions in the US will be hardest hit by hurricanes.

It is difficult for scientists to predict exactly where hurricanes will strike but that is the task of BBSR?s Risk Prediction Initiative (RPI), BBSR scientist Rick Murnane said.

?Seasonal forecasting is nowhere near an exact science,? Dr. Murnane admitted.

The initiative has two goals, assisting in scientific research and holding workshops, like the one at the BBSR in October where Dr. Murnane and visiting scientist Dr. Henry Diaz will meet with insurance experts from the US, UK and Switzerland, about the effect of climate change on extreme weather events.

?The research is looking at the long-term probabilities of hurricane landfall,? Dr. Murnane said.

The workshop is being sponsored by the insurance and reinsurance sector, who stand to make or lose billions of dollars through hurricane damage.

?The research is based in the US as it has the biggest loss of potential dollars,? Dr. Murnane said, adding that Bermuda will not be included. ?In Bermuda there are not as many people, and it is designed to sustain hurricanes.?

?Hurricanes impact on a number of sectors,? added visiting BBSR scientist Dr. Diaz.

When asked about the communities that rebuild on beaches known to be severely struck by hurricanes practically every year, Dr. Diaz said, they will continue to do so ?as long as someone else pays for it?.

Part of the RPI research includes developing records of prehistoric hurricane activity by taking core samples to see the layers of soil and how they were formed.

?You can go back 5,000 years,? Dr. Murnane said.

?The work focuses on regions of certainty and uncertainly,? Dr. Murnane said. ?We know Miami gets hit a lot, but we look at areas where there is more uncertainty.?

Academics as well as representatives from Government will be in attendance at the workshop which will also include predicting regions likely to be hit by major fires.

Despite the catastrophic Tsunami of December 26, 2004, however, the RPI workshops will not deal with tsunamis as they are tectonic phenomena.