February 1, 2003
John Anderson, 59, found close to 80 pieces of debris on his 14-acre patch of grass and woods, mostly pieces of tile, from minute up to two feet long.[11:04 PM]Mr. Anderson said he saw the one that landed on his front porch first, recognized it and knew what had happened before he turned on the television.
“We heard this low-frequency, high-energy sound, an enormous release of energy, sort of a ragged boom,” he said. “I hadn’t even remembered that the shuttle was landing today. Unfortunately we have gotten to the point of thinking of them as completely safe and commonplace. Then I remembered it was landing today, and I was afraid maybe something happened.
The awful thing, he said, was “the realization that what you had thought possibly could be the case from what you had felt, was obviously the case. We had the TV on, and by that time they were reporting there had been no communication. But we already knew.”
We heard the boom and our windows rattled. Something ping-ed off the side of the house or the roof. We thought something had exploded on the expressway . . . I went out and looked for anything, but concluded it had to be a sonic boom. I sat down to take the pills I have to take in the morning and WFAA (here in Dallas) was on with a special report. All day, my mother was dazed. "We heard it. We heard the shuttle breaking up." I told her that they hadn't had time to know what happened, I was certain; they were just suddenly in the arms of the angels.
Reports of debris just north and south of us, but nothing here that I can find . . .yet.
Hard-Hitting Moderator: Teresa Nielsen Hayden.
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