Are these stories to illustrate a point or did they actually happen?
they actually happened and there are many more that are less dramatic per say but boil down to the same thing
there is nothing new under the sun and everything that was, is and will be can be found in the torah
its obviously not that simple to just open up and check the index but the same way it takes lots of study to attain knowledge on any subject and there will be some who know and some who are experts in their field the breadth and depth of this as well cannot not be measured or studied enough