Deleting iCloud account erases files on my mac???

Due to some severe technical problems involving the inability to log in or change the password to my iCloud account, I am trying to delete it from my Mac. I go to System preferences > Internet Accounts, and highlight the iCloud account, the click on the minus button at the bottom. I then get a dialog that states that some documents have not been uploaded to iCloud and if i turn it off, then these docs will be "deleted from this Mac." What I would like to know is how do I find out which docs will be deleted since I'll be terminating my iCloud account. How do I save these files so they won't be deleted? Obviously I can't access the data in my iCloud account due to the password problem.

It seems counter intuitive that local files will be deleted rather than cloud files, but whatever.

Thanks,

-Tod

Edited to add:

I clicked the Delete from Mac button to see what would happen, and another dialog box popped up stating that my iCloud Photo Library is currently being updated and if I turn off the updating, I'll lose some photos or videos. Clicking the Turn Off button brings up yet another dialog stating that 10 low-resolution photos and videos will be removed from this Mac. Again, how do I find out which files will be removed and why will they be removed from the Mac and not the cloud?