With Hurricane Gustav battering Cuba, and on it’s way to New Orleans, there’s another storm brewing – A social media storm.

Andy Carvin has created the Gustav Information Center, a website specifically to track information about the Hurricane. This was done using the free social network too, Ning. News about the site has spread like wildfire across the blogosphere and over Twitter.

The social network includes links to blogs and news items about Gustav, a forum to allow discussion, and a Google Map for anyone to offer accomodation to evacuating New Orleans residents.

And in the short space of 2 days, the social network is more just a collection of links to news and pictures. It’s a thriving community of volunteers, and people. It’s an interesting example of the real power of web 2.0, where anyone with an internet connection has the tools to create their own network quickly, easily, and for free.

(Photo Credit :: tcostart)