It’s known that the earthquake is one of the most powerful natural     1     in the world. And it’s difficult to predict (预测) it in advance.

Several years ago, an earthquake which reached a magnitude of 7.8 suddenly hit New Zealand. It struck the South Island,     2     hundreds of aftershocks and a tsunami.

Some roads and buildings     3     by the earthquake and its aftershocks. In the coastal town of Kaikoura, a popular whale-watching destination, many people found their water and power     4     cut off. Some parts of the town lay     5    . From all directions, Kaikoura was completely cut off from the outside.

After the earthquake, helicopters and a navy ship were sent there to rescue about 1,000 people who     6     in the town. The people who lost their homes had to take     7     in the tents.

After touring the     8     area, John Key, the then New Zealand’s Prime Minister predicted that clearing away the debris (瓦砾) and the blocked roads could take months.

After the earthquake, the whole city lay in     1     . Many people were died or    2    . Everything in the city was    3    . People were shocked and wondered how long the disaster would last. The army     4    teams to dig out who were trapped and bury the dead. With the strong support from the government and the     5    efforts of the city`s people, a new city was built.

The Wilsons river broke its banks on the night of February 27^th while Lismore, a town of around 30,000 in New South Wales, was sleeping. Its residents snoozed through early-hours emergency     1     that “risk to life was approaching”. Within hours the town was submerged. Residents scrambled into their attics. Mothers carried children onto rooftops. An army of locals launched tin boats into the floods to save them. Four people died.

Eastern Australia has been     2     by what politicians call “once-in-1,000-year” flooding. It has already had a rainy summer because of La Niña, a phenomenon which triggers downpours there. Brisbane, Queensland’s capital, received almost 80% of its annual rainfall in less than a week in February, flooding 15,000 homes. As the rain     3     into northern New South Wales, it ripped up roads and drowned herds of cattle. Storms lashed Sydney on March 8 th , causing a dam to     4     over. Some 50,000 people in the state have been forced to evacuate.

Scientists are careful when blaming floods on global warming because everything from rainfall to urban development contributes to them. They disagree, too, about whether climate change is a factor in this kind of never-ending downpour. No matter the     5    , extreme weather is now a regular occurrence in Australia. In 2019 and 2020 vast lands of the country were torched in bushfires which destroyed more than 3,000 homes and killed 33 people. Unlucky towns such as Lismore have in recent years been hit by both fire and floods.

It does not help that the state and federal governments’     6     has been disorganized. When disaster strikes, official aid is often slow to come. In 2019 the federal government set aside almost A$4bn for a fund that would help it respond to     7     and prevent future ones. But it has spent hardly any of that money. It has now deployed the army and is dishing out cash to victims, but locals fume that they were     8     for days without power or fuel as supplies of food and water dwindled.

A debate now     9     about how or even whether places like Lismore should rebuild. Analysts think the floods might trigger insurance claims worth more than A$3bn. Expenses are already so high in disaster-prone towns that many locals can no longer afford     10    . “If we are going to start thinking every time there’s a natural disaster that we have to give up and leave because it’s too hard, then where are we going to live?” asks Lismore’s mayor, Steve Krieg. That is becoming a question for ever more Australians.