Ensuring weather warnings make sense to the general public will be a key way to help implement a global pact on disaster risk reduction, participants at the World Meteorological Organization’s top forum heard today.

Models of local-level disaster risk reduction and management, the Jordanian cities of Aqaba and Petra are leading an initiative for five fellow municipalities which have stepped up their own efforts to build resilience.

One of Asia's poorest and most disaster-prone countries, Nepal is reeling from a massive earthquake outside the capital Kathmandu which has claimed hundreds of lives.

Early warning systems have a proven track record of saving lives but even the most technically impressive systems “are useless” if people are not reached or do not understand the warning.

As negotiations resume this week in Geneva on a global agreement on disaster risk management, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) said the Philippines “zero casualty” approach to managing Typhoon Hagupit was further evidence of Asia’s leadership role in reducing mortality and tackling economic losses from disasters.

A new cross-border multi-hazard early warning system will be developed in the Western Balkans and Turkey to increase resilience to floods, landslides, droughts and heat-waves which often hit the region and to build on the lessons learnt from the devastating floods of May 2014.

The United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and Esri today announced a new winner in the UN Global Disaster Resilience App Challenge. The competition challenged developers to create apps that support the UNISDR Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready. Guardian Evacuations—an app written by Leon Storey and Gareck Packer that gets people to their closest evacuation center during a storm—was awarded first place in the consumer/public facing category.

India has again emerged as a global example of early warning, early action with the timely evacuation of up to 400,000 people ahead of Cyclone Hudhud.