My wife was downstairs and I was still upstairs in the bedroom, when the house was rattled by a large sonic boom, at around 8am CST (not knowing the cause at first, we didn't go outside to look). I live in Irving Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth.
All day yesterday on the local TV news and radio channels, there were reports by many others who live in the Dallas/Fort Worth and surrounding areas, who experienced the same thing. It appears that the break up started above the Dallas/Fort Worth area (or slightly north west of this area). Later, when I learned the altitude of Columbia over the Dallas/Fort Worth area was 200,000 ft, I could hardly believe that a sonic boom of that intensity, could reach the ground over such a wide area from that altitude.
A little farther down range, going towards Nacogdoches, many residents in that area reported hearing mulitple thunder clap sounds, that lasted a minute or two in duration. I assume this may have been caused by the sonic booms of multiple objects, spaced out along the flight path, moving southeast overhead of their position.
Since most of the debris fell in east Texas and western Lousiana, the energy of the total mass of Columbia must have decelerated much more rapidly than the final planned deceleration to subsonic speeds over Florida. This might account for all of the noise that we heard here in north central and east Texas yesterday morning.
My wife and I send our condolences and prayers to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy.