SAN DIEGO -- Survivors of firestorms that destroyed more than 2,000 homes in Southern California found reasons Sunday to be thankful even as the damage toll mounted.

Fierce Santa Ana winds spread fires across more than half a million acres during the week, chasing a half-million people from communities as homes burned.

Despite the destruction, residents still gave thanks at church services in some of the hardest-hit communities.

At the Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church, where 60 families lost their homes, they gave thanks for the big things: for lives saved, for families, for friendships.

Nancy Hylbert gave thanks for a wrought-iron ice cream table and chairs that survived outside, and a terra cotta statue of a cat from her garden.

In the Lake Arrowhead region of the fire-ravaged San Bernardino Mountains, about 25 members of the Community Presbyterian Church pieced together their own worship service because their interim pastor couldn't get a resident's card.

Members hugged and rejoiced over the congregation's fortune: The fire had spared all local members' homes and a woman had given birth to a healthy boy while evacuated.