Why D and not E?

@knoxgirl the problem with (E) is that nothing in the stimulus states that Hollyville experienced a flood. Here is the timeline of disasters: Earthquake (not Hollyville) - - Tornado (Hollyville) - - Flood (not Hollyville) The proportion of residents that participated in aid to the flood victims far surpassed that of a few years ago when Hollyville sent aid to victims of the earthquake. This is why (D) is the correct answer: "Once a disaster has struck them (tornado), people are more than likely to aid others in need (flood victims) than they were before the disaster (earthquake victims)." Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

I have the same question and I don't understand how that eliminates choice E, they also gave more to flood disaster victims than to earthquake disaster victims and they themselves are prone to floods, so wouldn't that also be true?

E doesn't work because it says "dissimilar hardship." The hardships are all relatively similar, so it would be hard to argue that a flood is closer to a tornado than an earthquake is, so we can get rid of this choice.