I read a review out of the UK testing the durability of flash memory cars, they went as far as to physically nail a CF card to a tree and then submerged the same card in salt water for 24 hours, and it still worked. It amazed me the durability these things have.
I've never lost gear to demolition, working for the newspaper all these years, but I've lost gear in riots. Well lenses, the pro-bodies handle the impact of hitting rioters pretty well. Almost lost a few photographing trains. In the case of the lost equipment in the article, don't fret, most likely it was owned by the paper and will get replaced. Work life on newspaper cameras can be quite short. I was replacing my gear almost yearly, at the paper's expense of course.