When it was over, the base lay in ruins, amid what the Air Force called “widespread catastrophic damage.” There were no reported injuries, in part because nearly all personnel had been ordered to leave in advance of the Category 4 hurricane’s landfall. Commanders still sifting through mounds of wreckage Thursday could not say when evacuation orders would be lifted.

[Follow our live updates on the aftermath of Hurricane Michael here]

Planes from nearby Hurlburt Field and Eglin Air Force Base also fled inland in the days before the storm. Planes that could not make the flight inland were secured in hangars and a small “ride out element” of airmen stayed behind during the hurricane.

Its aftermath was both devastating and remarkable, with helicopter footage of the base Thursday morning showing hangars that had easily survived past storms now riddled with gaping holes. At least three twin-engine propeller planes owned by a contractor and used for training were buried in debris from the wreckage of the largest hangar, along with what appeared to be an F-22, and at least five QF-16 jets — retired fighters that have been stripped down and turned into drones and used as target practice.

[Click here for photos from Hurricane Michael.]

In a Facebook post late Thursday, base leaders said many of the buildings were “a complete loss.” The marina, its structures and docks were also destroyed. Power lines and trees blocked nearly every road, and utilities and electricity had not been turned back on.

As the sun was setting Thursday, an Air Force special tactics team had cleared the base runway.

The destruction of an air force base can only be matched in scope by the pounding that Hurricane Andrew gave Homestead Air Force Base, just south of Miami, in 1992. That Category 5 storm, with winds estimated at 150 m.p.h., smashed hangars and left battered fighter jets and mammoth cargo planes in pieces on the runway. Nearly all of the surviving planes and personnel were reassigned to other bases. Two years later, it reopened as a smaller, Air Force Reserve base.

The Air Force was unable to say Thursday when Tyndall might resume operations. Other Air Force and Navy bases in the area, which were spared the brunt of the storm, reopened in a limited capacity Thursday.

Tyndall, where about 3,600 airmen are stationed, sits on 29,000 acres that include undeveloped woods and beaches, as well as stores, restaurants, schools, a bowling alley and quiet, tree-lined streets with hundreds of homes for both active-duty and retired military. Video footage captured the ruin there, too: The high-powered storm skinned roofs, shattered windows, and tossed cars and trailers like toys, transforming the normally pristine base into a trash heap. Multistory barracks buildings stood open to the sky.