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#southerncaliforniawildfires One thing that never ceases to amaze me is that in the worst possible natural disasters and military attacks, some structures survive for no known reason when all the other structures around them are destroyed. I was born on the Island of Galveston. On August 27, 1900, Galveston had a population of 38,000. The island was hit by one of the most violent tropical storms ever, and up to 12,000 people died. 10,000 people were left homeless. Most structures on the island were destroyed. In May, I visited the island. I spent a lot of time in front of 3717 Avenue K. This was the house where I began life. A lady from the house next door came out to talk to me. She told me that the house where she lived had survived the 1900 storm. It was supposed to have a State of Texas historical marker.
In 1906, a devastating earthquake hit San Francisco. 3,000 people were killed. 80% of the structures in San Francisco were destroyed. I have seen pictures from that sad time. One can look at pictures of a street where many houses were destroyed. For some unknown reason, some houses survived.
I am a World War II scholar. I have looked at many pictures of Dresden after the horrific firebombing attack that killed 140,000 people. For no known reason, some of the structures in the city survived. The same can be said of Hiroshima and Nagasaki where atomic bombs were detonated. Again, some structures survived.
Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in August of 2005. 1,391 people are reported to have died. For some unknown reason, many structures survived when all the buildings around them were destroyed.
Some years ago, my dear sister saw her home burn to the ground in Bastrop, Texas. She came back to her street. She saw several homes that had received no damage. She felt that what had happened to her was so arbitrary.
As I watch television reports of the Los Angeles fires, I am again amazed to see that for some unknown reason, some houses and other structures survived the fire with little or no damage when everything around these structures was destroyed.
As of this morning, all our readers have reported safe and are still in their homes in Southern California.