Rather, they were various kinds of incomplete powers that were unfitted to carry out any function. It is not that the creative powers and laws (הויות וחוקים, havayot vechukim) ceased to exist. They existed, but they could not function in any way at all because of the great damage and destruction, which they could not escape. Thus they existed, but they lacked what they needed in order to be able to function.
Part 2: And their source maintained them in this state... For they did not cease to exist, which means that their source – the lights – were in existence, and the source maintained them in existence, except that it kept them in existence in a state of disrepair, and they were not repaired until the arrival of a new radiation, as it goes on to say.