The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) is a joint project between the United Nations and the European Commission, and disaster managers worldwide - working to improve alerts, information exchange and coordination in the first-phase after major sudden onset disasters.
GDACS offers a helpful service, where you can subscribe for notifications and details of major (and minor) disasters, such as earthquakes, tropical cyclones, floods. This information is sent to a mobile/e-mail device as and when these disasters occur.
This is not only helpful for disaster management professionals, but also a useful way of keeping in touch with what's happening across the world - especially those things that don't make the UK national news (often in developing countries). For example, flooding in India over the past month has displaced more than one million people - and yet this has barely scratched the media in Europe.
