There has been discussion about the recent fires and whether they will become "the new normal" with the ongoing crippling drought. But not too long ago, the landscape was battered by a completely different threat, SAGE SWINTON writes.
I have been working full-time as a journalist for five years and in that relatively short career, I can now say I've seen close to the furthest extremes of mother nature's fury.
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In January 2015 I was over the moon to secure a permanent job at the Mercury's sister paper, the Cessnock Advertiser.
But just a few months in, I was thrown in the deep end - almost literally.
It was April 21. The Hunter had awoken to torrential rain, frightening winds and rising flood waters. Yep, it was the 2015 superstorm.
It was deadline day at the paper and the office had lost power. Two of our colleagues in Maitland had to battle the flood waters to ferry a generator to us as we proof-read pages under candlelight.
We spent the next few days visiting residents all over the city. Those whose homes had been severely damaged, whose cars had been swept away and who were counting their blessings after their backyard tree had fallen where it did.
Some were not so fortunate. The storm claimed three lives in Dungog and another woman also died in Maitland after her car was swept off the road.
Other people had to be rescued and many took years to recover, while some haven't fully been able to.
Fast-forward just a few years and all of this feels almost unfathomable. These days it seems hard to remember a decent downpour let alone a flood.
But the effects of these fires have been every bit as devastating in their own way.
In 2015, hundreds of homes were damaged or lost, tens of thousands of animals were killed, roads were closed and bottled water had to be delivered to residents who were left unconnected to the system.
Sound familiar?
Back then, hundreds of thousands of homes lost power. Now, residents are being urged to reduce their electricity consumption due to power lines being damaged by fire.
The superstorm was confirmed as a natural disaster by the NSW Government, while Premier Gladys Berejiklian has declared a State of Emergency three times over the current fires.
Two opposite ends of the weather scale, but the results are frighteningly similar.
The incidents were each described as "unprecedented" by the NSW State Emergency Service and NSW Rural Fire Service respectively.
While no one wants another superstorm, we desperately need rain and a lot of it. The mere thought of it seems like a dream at the moment.
