"You could be home watching the evening news and not have a clue, then you're toast, literally.'

Apparently that's more or less what happened in the Black Saturday fires - killed 178 people. The stories were - "look! there's a fire up in the mountains" - then the next thing it was upon them

As you said, Paradise - a whole community and all it's historical institutions getting wiped out - that's heart breaking. Even the survivors have still got a whole lot more surviving to do to come to terms with that

Reliable year round rainfall has to be number one on your list when looking around for property these days - what fits that bill in the states?