Washington ? The economic effects of closing U.S. military bases can hit nearby cities and towns like a tsunami, the chairman of a base-closing and realignment commission said Tuesday as the commission began a review to determine the future of scores of bases.

The nine-member commission’s heavy lifting starts within the next 12 days after the Pentagon submits its recommendations for closing or restructuring bases. The deadline for the Pentagon report is May 16, but it could be released by early next week.

Anthony Principi, sixth from right, chairman of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, swears in commission members on Capitol Hill Tuesday during the panel's first meeting. From Principi's left are commissioners James V. Hansen, Gen. James Hill, Gen. Lloyd Warren Newton, Samuel Skinner and Brig. Gen. Sue Ellen Turner.

“The words ‘closure’ and ‘realignment’ are easy to write on paper, but they have profound effects on communities,” said Anthony J. Principi, the commission’s chairman. “The ripples of the proposals the secretary of defense will soon present to our nation, and to us, will be tsunamis in the communities they hit.”

Communities nationwide have been lobbying feverishly to protect their bases and will accelerate their campaigns as the commission conducts hearings and visits bases.

The commission must prepare its report for President Bush by Sept. 8. The president then will review it and can order revisions. Finally, Congress must accept or reject the report in its entirety.

The 2005 effort is the latest of five base-closing rounds that have shuttered 97 major bases and hundreds of smaller installations since 1988 for a net savings of nearly $28 billion.