Pressing him to explain why he creates and obliterates houses ultimately seemed like asking the photographer Cindy Sherman why she takes so many pictures of herself.
At the same time, aid workers about 750 miles to the east, on the island of Java, scrambled to provide water, food and medicine to tens of thousands of people driven from their homes after eruptions of the Mount Merapi volcano killed at least 29, obliterated houses in bursts of hot gas, and spread ash and debris over the surrounding densely populated countryside.
The intelligence team wrestles with the choice of obliterating the house where bombers are plotting and risking the girl's life, or letting the terrorists go and commit mayhem.
Nonetheless, about fifteen minutes after the attack had been repelled, a missile launched from a coalition jet obliterated the house, killing everyone inside except a sole survivor.
Excerpt: "It had obliterated the house and blown down a 20-yard section of the heavy stone boundary wall, before smashing in part of the station.
Romi, the deliveryman, barely saw the wave before it obliterated his panggung house.
Rather than obliterating the three-story house and everyone inside, they rejected a large bombing attack and approved the riskier commando raid that killed him.
The box flashed the date and time and then suddenly I was there, the club exploding into life like a comet touching down, light and noise and movement obliterating the now, the house gone, my daughter gone, the world of getting and doing and bosses and work vanished in an instant.
Minutes later, an explosion obliterated the Walits' place and all but obliterated the adjoining town house, which Mr. Cochran shared at 418 State Street with his longtime companion, Julian Jackson.
I've come to like seeing the light from the chicken house almost obliterated by blowing snow at dusk.
