According to the article itself the destruction came to an end on April 4, 2002 (I'm adding the 2002 because I remember it was last year). At the time the IIOs were put to work extra hours to handle the many calls from concerned people like you. I myself called during that time to make sure they had not destroyed my I-89 application for plastic GC, which had not been destroyed. Anyway, if you applied after april 4, 2002 you should not worry.
I am not sure if they contacted everyone affected, but I believed they were supposed to. Anyway, with such long time you should not have received FP notices or AP or EAD or something, it's a bunch of months. I think you should not worry. Now everything is slow for whatever other security or political reasons. That's my opinion.
PS: I think the LA times had some long articles about this. I don't know if they are searchable on their website archive. I would try a search in google with INS shredding documents and perhaps some narrowing keyword like niguel or contractor.
PS2: I got this from a pasted LA times article doing my google search.
"We are taking this matter very, very seriously," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the INS regional headquarters. "The kind of work that's being done at this service center certainly affects tens of thousands of people." The INS is also planning to ask some applicants whose paperwork may have vanished to send another set of documents. The agency said it will work with attorneys and immigrant advocates to help reconstruct people's files if necessary."
http://www.testmagic.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=534
