Shalom, 1) There is no clear source what is the cause for natural disasters, although we know that everything in this world has a spiritual source. Anything G-d does is for a reason and not always we know or understand the reason. Sometimes natural disasters occur as a 'punishment' from G-d for not following his laws and that is why you see many nations that practice idol worship get hit by natural disasters. Usually these countries do not have much or any Jews that learn Torah there and the torah does not protect that country. This is not always the case. Some time the cause is to make us repent by seeing the disaster G-d brought on another nation and for us the fear the result of sins, like in the story of the prophet Yona (Jonah), when the storm hit the sea he said 'this storm is for me or because of me, as he understood G-d brought down that storm for him to repent and listen to G-d. Ultimately we do not know why and the cause, but we should defiantly take it as a sign from G-d to 'shape up' and follow his commandments. 2) Again, hard to really know. As I mentioned before, yes, sometimes a nation or country will get hit as a 'collective punishment' for idol worship,blasphemy and/or forbidden relations which G-d can not stand. In most case we can point on mainly acts of sin and not lack of Mitzvot. In general, we don't really know and the lesson to take from these natural disasters is that we have to repent, do Teshuvah and pray to G-d to redeem us already All the best Rabbi Alon Anava