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

Disasters such as tornadoes, floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, hurricanes and earthquakes have come one after another, causing great 【小题1】to many countries. Among them the earthquake has the worst effects. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake caused more than 240,000 【小题2】. 90 percent of homes lay in ruins and people 【小题3】a lot. Everywhere the 【小题4】survivors saw destroyed bricks and useless metals as if the world were at an end. Rescue teams dug out the trapped,【小题5】the dead and built shelters.   With unified efforts and wisdom of all people, the city revived itself and began to 【小题6】again. Earthquakes under the sea can also cause tsunamis. The tsunami that 【小题7】Asia in 2004 crashed into coastlines and swept away many people. Foreign countries aided these areas by 【小题8】food and supplies by helicopter.   (Tips for emergency: ※Keep calm※Tap on a pipe or whistle for help※Stay away from power lines※Survive on what you have on hand.)

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 【小题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 【小题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 【小题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 【小题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 【小题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’ 【小题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 【小题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 【小题8】 for days without power or fuel as supplies of food and water dwindled.

A debate now 【小题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 【小题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.