At least the executives at risk manager and insurer Aon understand what the victims of Hurricane Sandy are going through. Aon's building in lower Manhattan was taken out by the storm as the aptly named Water Street location was swamped by Sandy's 12-foot storm surge.

“It's a good thing Aon is a big company with offices in New Jersey, Chicago and Boston,” says Rick Miller, chief broking officer at Aon Risk Solutions' U.S. property practice, speaking from a dry Aon office in Boston. “There are a lot of companies in lower Manhattan where their whole business was in one building that had to be closed down because of the flooding.”

Estimates of insured losses from the huge late-season tropical storm are likely to pass $20 billion, while the overall impact reportedly could top $50 billion, meaning a huge portion of the losses will not be covered by insurance. A fair share of both the insured losses and the uncovered losses, Miller says, will involve business interruption, or BI.