In the wake of Hurricane Michael’s devastating sweep through the Florida Panhandle, traumatized locals emerged from shelter on Thursday to find a hell­scape virtually unrecognizable as their coastal home.

In once picturesque Mexico Beach, Fla., hit head on by Category 4 Michael’s furious 155 mph winds, entire rows of houses were reduced to splinters, beached boats lay tossed among the wreckage of homes, and downed power lines snaked lifelessly through the debris-strewn streets.

“That’s the blade from her ceiling fan. That’s her floor tile,” Mishelle McPherson observed as she searched in vain for a friend’s missing elderly mother amid what used to be the senior’s home.

“Do you think her body would be here?” McPherson mused. “Do you think it would have floated away?”

By Thursday evening, at least six deaths had been attributed to the once-in-a-generation storm, according to CNN.

Among the casualties were four people killed in Florida’s Gadsden County, including one struck by a falling tree; a 38-year-old motorist whose car was crushed by a massive tree in Statesville, NC, as Michael wound back out to sea Thursday; and an 11-year-old Georgia girl.

The child, identified by a coroner as Sarah Radney, was taking shelter in her Seminole County home when a metal carport, tossed into the air by gale-force winds, crashed through the home’s roof and onto Radney’s head.

“So many lives have been changed forever,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said. “So many families have lost everything.”

“The hurricane was an absolute monster,” added Scott, according to NBC News. “And the damage left in its wake is still yet to be fully understood.”

Rescuers and officials worked methodically Thursday to tally the tempest’s toll, in the face of a pervasive fear that it was destined to grow.

A National Guard team fanned out through the apocalyptic waste of Mexico Beach overnight Wednesday into Thursday, pulling 20 survivors to safety.

State officials said 285 residents of the tiny shorefront town were there when Michael hit, having ignored mandatory evacuation orders.

With Post wires