About midnight
In others it seemed to swoop down from above , lick up a patch of trees bodily and carry them clean away , leaving the surrounding trees untouched . Sometimes it would select a tree of thirty years growth , seize it , spin it round , and leave it a permanent spiral screw . I was in these regions about the time , and had the account from a native who had gone through it all and could n't speak of it except with glaring eyeballs and gasping breath . `` About midnight of the 28th the gale was at its worst . Darkness that could be felt between the flashes of lightning . Thunder that was nearly drowned by the roaring of the wind an ' the crashing of everything all round . To save their lives the people had to fling themselves into ditches and hollows of the ground .