The scope of the devastation brought by Hurricane Michael came into sobering focus on Thursday as rescue workers searched a ruined landscape of splintered homes, toppled trees and upended vehicles that stretched across much of the Florida Panhandle.

The seaside community of Mexico Beach, where the storm made landfall, was a flattened wreck. Across the small sportfishing town, piers and docks were destroyed, fishing boats were piled crazily on shore and townspeople wandered the streets in horror and wonder.

“These were all block and stucco houses — gone,” said Tom Bailey, the former mayor. “The mother of all bombs doesn’t do any more damage than this.”

And while Mexico Beach was the hardest hit, much of the Florida Panhandle was a landscape of collapsed buildings and compromised roads and water systems. Rescue teams evacuated hospitals, searched rubble for survivors and dropped emergency supplies from helicopters.

The storm’s rage spread across six states, and well more than a million homes and businesses were without electricity on Thursday as Michael made its way seaward as a tropical storm. At least 11 people were confirmed dead, and officials appeared resigned that the toll would rise. Local governments imposed dusk-to-dawn curfews and told residents to boil their water. The American Red Cross said about 7,800 people slept in shelters on Wednesday night.

“So many lives have been changed forever, so many families have lost everything,” said governor Rick Scott of Florida. “Homes are gone, businesses are gone. Roads and infrastructure along the storm’s path have been destroyed. This hurricane was an absolute monster.”

To go from town to town on Thursday, and even battered block to battered block, was to see how Michael could be as capricious as it was destructive. In St James, Florida, newer homes stood intact next to older ones that had been shattered into piles of soggy wood.

Even some of the homes that had survived — barely — had their insides spilled onto the sand: refrigerators, seat cushions, life vests.

Beyond lives and homes, the storm seized community hubs, like two oak trees long used as a place to gather and talk in Greensboro, a small town in Gadsden County, Florida. By the end of the storm, they had crashed to earth.

One of four dead in Gadsden County was a man from Greensboro who had a heart attack on Thursday morning. Rescuers, faced with a mess of debris, could not immediately reach him, but neighbours and others rushed in with chain saws and tractors, pulling away tree limbs to clear a path.

“This town got destroyed within 24 hours, but it took us 12 hours to bounce back harder than ever,” said Jay Stiles, a local firefighter. “Citizens came together.”