Tornadic storms rushed through east Tennessee the night of April 27, 2011. Many tornadoes touched ground, but I was fortunate not to have a tornado or any large hail at my home. I set up my camera on the tripod at the back door facing north and took about 77 long exposure photos of the passing clouds and lightning. The lightning was intense, almost like a strobe light. If you view these photos as a slideshow you will see some of the intensity. This was the same night so many lives were lost in several states, especially in Alabama but also in Tennessee. This series of photographs were taken over a period of about 3.5 hours and there are gaps in the sequence. At times in the middle my focus is a little bit blurred but I left the shots in anyway. Toward the end you will see my propped open back door in the upper left of the photo. You will also see my shift in direction to follow the intensity of the lightning. You can use the tree line or my little truck as points of reference. Let me say everyone in the area was on pins and needles, some hunkered down in the safest rooms in their houses, and others assessing the damages to their property from wind and hail as individual storm cells passed by. You will also see that lots of the storm clouds reached the ground, and I am sure some of these photos captured shots just before a tornado formed, the same tornado that destroyed the Cocke County High School and went north into Greene County, Tennessee, destroying many homes in the Cant Creek area before moving further north into Washington County and then southwest Virginia causing more damage. Lives were lost in Greene County by what was determined to be an F2. Another local F3 tornado caused lots of damage in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Due to this F3 many trails have been closed from Abrams Creek Campground to Cades Cove, and it will probably be months before they are reopened.