The closest I've been to a lightning strike was right across the street from my house (about 30 yards). It was a little before 4am when my wife and I woke up to a LOUD crack that felt like a punch in the chest. We figured lightning hit the house, so we got up and looked around, but nothing was burning, and the electricity was still on. Checked on the boys, and they were still fast asleep, even though their room across the hall was closer to where the lightning actually hit.
Later that morning I went outside and noticed the bark that had been peeled off the 60-foot tree across the street like someone had run a vegetable/ fruit peeler down it in a swervy pattern. Our neighbors considered themselves lucky that the lightning didn't split their tree and cause it to fall on their house.
It was by far the loudest noise I've ever experienced. My ears actually rang from it.