According to the exegets...

According to the exegets, the cloud contained a wind which blew so hard that they were desperate and their property and animals were scattered and they were annihilated as well. As per a narration recorded in Manhaj and narrated on the authority of ‘Amr ibn Maymun, the wind blew so hard that it took the tents and the camels with their litters to the sky like grasshoppers jumping up.

According to another narration, the first person to notice the torment was a woman who said: “I see a wind blowing and blazing with flames.” Hud (as) took away the believers from among the disbelievers. The wind invigorated the believers and softened their bodies and they enjoyed its blow. The fact is that all creatures are the Divine Host at His Command. They are the enemies of God’s enemies and the friends of God’s friends.

If they do not turn away from God’s enemies for a while we should know that God works in mysterious ways and the Creator has granted them respite so that the world may be refashioned. It is said that when the people of ‘Ad were desperate with the harsh wind blowing, they sought refuge in their houses and closed the doors thinking that they could save themselves from God’s torment. The wind blew harsher and pulled out the doors.

It blew for seven days and nights and embraced them beneath the piles of sand in Ahqaf so that they were hidden beneath them and were annihilated: “such that nothing could be seen except their dwellings!” According to Verse 25, following the occurrence of the harsh disaster, no trace was seen of the people of ‘Ad but their houses and dwelling places.

It becomes evident that when the wind subsided, their dead bodies had also disappeared, since it is said that the wind hurled them toward the mounts so that their bodies were destroyed. Thus is the chastisement decreed for the sinners. If God wills, they have to meet the recompense of their vices so that others may take a lesson.