I spent one of the most miserable nights of my life back in December of 2001 when we had an ice storm here in NC; the power went out at 11:30 and it was pitch black and all night long, all you could hear was trees bending, snappy, falling through the OTHER folliage, and hitting the ground with unbelieveable THUDS/SLAMS, shaking the entier house like it was a toy.
Of course, because it was dark, you couldn't tell WHICH tree it was or WHERE it was going to fall (would it hit the house, the cars?).
Even wearing headphones to listen to music didn't block out the noises or the shaking of the ground.
We lost 33 trees.
And the next morning it was like a surreal nightmare; I've never seen anything like it.
And ALL my neighors kept saying was, "Oh, this was nothing; you should have been here for Fran."
No thanks. From what they said -- and what you described -- that sounds way too close to hell on earth for me.
Yeah, THAT'S what it's like. It was hard to describe the experience because I'd never been exposed to anything like it before. "Thud" and "slam" fits rather nicely.
33 trees. May-an!