Explanation: In pre-modern societies, there is a tendency to assign the cause of natural disasters to the displeasure of supernatural forces with the behavior of mortals. When a disaster was widespread enough, it would often lead to the ruler losing legitimacy and being overthrown.
In Imperial China, this was known as "The Mandate of Heaven", but you see variations of this general line of thinking in nearly every pre-modern society, from Greece to Egypt to India to Germany.