We had just come in from watching the shuttle pass overhead, and I realize now that what we saw was the craft breaking up. About 30-45 seconds after we came in into the house we heard one or two loud booms. My first thought was that a transformer in one of the neighborhood's electrical boxes had blown up... that's happened before and it will rattle the garage door a bit. I've seen the shuttle's approach before over North Texas and have never heard a sonic boom - it's just too high... it couldn't have been the shuttle. But at 8:15, when NASA TV was long overdue to show the landing approach, we just knew that something was wrong.
As Columbia passed overhead, we saw it get shredded by unimaginable forces. It was falling like a rock, out of control. Yesterday was a tough day.