Mike's America: Miracle at Notre Dame As Damage Not as Total as Feared. Many Artworks Survive

God heard the prayers of the world!

Young Parisians knelt in prayer and sang hymns as the fire raged at Notre Dame on Monday evening. The video is especially touching.

Monday reports from French officials suggested the possibility that the entire cathedral might be destroyed as the fire seemed to rage out of control. Here's the problem:

The roof of the cathedral was held up with 800 year old beams. As you see from the photo above a fire would rip through the entire area quickly. This is the attic of Notre Dame. Directly below is the ceiling.

The central spire, also made of wood and covered in lead like the roof, collapsed and fell through the ceiling into the center of the cathedral. Fortunately, the central altar with it's priceless works of art was largely saved as were other areas protected by the central columns.

Despite nearby catastrophic damage it appears that some of the larger stained glass rose windows survived. Below is a photo of the north window.

Reports are the the large south window, an incredible work of art installed in 1260 also survived.

Now that the fire is out the urgent need is to assess integrity of the remaining structure