Following the death of all living creatures, the flood brought about a stage of absolute annihilation. This was not merely physical death, but the total erasure of any trace of life outside the Ark. The uncompromising claim that no remnant of any ancient nation or culture survived points to the divine origin of the narrative, as no human author would risk making such a sweeping historical assertion that could easily be disproved by later discoveries [אם למקרא]. The primary approach among commentators is that after the creatures perished, the boiling waters of the flood dissolved and disintegrated their bodies entirely. They were reduced to water, leaving no structural trace for future generations to remember.
The narrative emphasizes this loss of memory and absolute destruction by describing God's direct action of wiping out life, followed immediately by the passive state of complete erasure. This consecutive stylistic choice is a traditional way to intensify the finality of the event [רש"י, קאסוטו]. For some, this total erasure meant the creatures were wiped from both this world and their portion in the World to Come [רמב"ן, רד"ק, אור החיים]. While most commentators understand the scope of this destruction to mean all animal life rather than plant life [ספורנו], others suggest it included the inhabited settlements themselves, with even the top layer of soil washed away [הכתב והקבלה]. This physical annihilation was accompanied by a spiritual halt. When earthly creatures were wiped out, the influence of their corresponding heavenly forces ceased, stopping the flow of spiritual abundance into the world [רבנו בחיי, צרור המור]. Furthermore, the explicit totality of this global erasure firmly refutes any opinion that the flood was merely a localized event [אבן עזרא].
The destruction unfolded in the reverse order of creation, beginning with humanity and ending with the animals. From a moral standpoint, humanity initiated the sin and caused the animal kingdom to corrupt its ways, meaning the retribution appropriately began with the instigators [תורה תמימה]. From a physical standpoint, the delicate human body was weaker than that of the beasts, causing it to dissolve first in the boiling waters [מלבי"ם, אור החיים].
Despite the complete surface annihilation, exceptions and remnants remained. The violent rushing waters and geological earthquakes opened the earth, burying the strong bones of giant, ancient creatures deep within the abyss. The discovery of these skeletal remains today can lead researchers to miscalculate the age of the world, as they do not realize these are remnants of the flood's massive upheaval buried in the depths [מלבי"ם, העמק דבר]. Additionally, marine life was excluded from the decree of destruction. Although the floodwaters were boiling, the fish survived by either diving to the cooler depths below the heated surface layer or by fleeing to distant oceans untouched by the torrential rains [רמב"ן, פרדס יוסף].
Ultimately, only Noah and those with him in the Ark remained. Yet, the limiting language of the narrative reveals that even Noah did not survive completely intact. He emerged frail and battered from the ordeal. The intense, freezing labor of constantly tending to the animals left him weak, coughing, and spitting blood, and he even suffered a physical wound from a lion when he delayed its feeding [רש"י, ריב"א, גור אריה]. Thus, from the entirety of the world, only a vulnerable, exhausted remnant was left from which humanity would have to rebuild.