In layman's terms, the plumbing was working throughout the entire process. New blocks were still being created, new transactions were still being validated, and orphaned blocks were pushed to the side while maintaining full integrity of the entire chain. This is a feature, not a bug. Reorg's are the chain's natural opportunity through nodes to act as white blood cells, kill the parasites/bacteria, and send them through the poop shoot like they were never there, allowing the body to continue functioning non-stop as if it never happened.(Litecoin)