Answer Questions

Read the article “Earthquake hits New Zealand as death toll rises to five in wake of Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle”, located at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-15/new-zeland-cyclone-gabrielle-earthquake-forecast/101979346 . Then answer the following questions.

 

1. Like in most of the world, New Zealand’s government has spent much of the last three years highly focused on COVID-19. In your opinion, is this likely to have affected preparedness for situations like the one described in the article? Why or why not? (10 marks)
2. What, if any, overlap is there in preparedness measures for an earthquake and for a tropical cyclone? What, if any, contradiction is there in preparedness measures for an earthquake and for a tropical cyclone? (10 marks)
3. What political challenges does this situation pose to New Zealand’s new Prime Minister, Chris Hip kins, who took office on January 25th 2023? (10 marks)
4. There has never been a 2004 Indian Ocean-style in New Zealand’s recorded history. Given this fact, why do you think Geo Net specifically mentioned that “no tsunami is expected” in its tweet? (20 marks)

 

Upload your responses to these questions in Microsoft Word format by no later than March 10th, 2023. Your responses to these questions should be in paragraphs; you may copy the questions in to a Word document and type your response below them if you find this an easy way to do it. There is no official word limit for this assessment, but overly long and irrelevant responses will not be considered very favorably – your responses should be concise and focused on the points raised in the questions. The marks assigned to each question will give you an idea of how much attention you should devote, proportionally, to each one.

You must achieve a score of 50% (25/50) on this assessment to pass.