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NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Taylors went to the door of their winter home because they were sure someone was pounding as hard as they could around 8 a.m. Saturday morning.
Then the roar just kept getting louder.
"It was a terrible, terrible noise," Lorene Taylor said this morning about the sound created when the Columbia screamed through the atmosphere, exploding into thousands of pieces above their heads. "The air just vibrated. It was like no sound you've ever heard before. It really scared everyone."
Tucked in the piney woods around the Sam Rayburn Reservoir, neither Orval nor Lorene Taylor could see anything through the tall trees on the foggy weekend morning.
The Taylors are summer residents of Pierceton and spend winters in Texas. They are the parents of David Taylor, proprietor of Blue Lion Coffee Houses in Winona Lake and Pierceton.
It wasn't until about 8:20 a.m., when NASA announced it had lost contact with the space shuttle, that the Taylors realized what had happened.
"At first it sounded like a bunch of Huey helicopters. Then I thought terrorists blew up the dam and the sound was water rushing down. A dam break would wipe out south Texas."
Nacogdoches lies about 40 miles west of the Louisiana state line and is in St. Augustine County, where more than 1,200 debris sites have been identified.
"There weren't any pieces in our yard, but the trees may have stopped them," Lorene said.
The Taylors' minister, who lives about 15 miles north of the reservoir, found a fuselage in his pasture. The minister's neighbor discovered a 12-foot long piece of the shuttle.
Others have found more horrific items, like an astronaut's hand, a leg.
"We've heard now they've found most of the astronauts and they've taken them to Shreveport, Louisiana."
"It's a shame, all these nice people killed."
Residents are asked not to touch any piece of metal they may come across because it may be radioactive. Area schools have been closed to make sure children don't pick up any pieces.
"Eight people who did touch pieces were hospitalized with respiratory problems. They've been released now."
Volunteers are combing the region, marking and tying off scraps that may have come from the doomed ship.
"There is a number to call if we find anything, but there are so many calls coming in, they said.
The 114,500 acre Sam Rayburn Reservoir is west of the 185,000 acre Toledo Bend Reservoir. Many pieces of the Columbia are suspected of landing in those waters.
"The tiles [of the shuttle] were made to float, we may find some on the water.
"I'd like to get Orval to see some of the pieces, but he said no, just leave it alone."
Like many American's the Taylor's don't follow the space program.
"We didn't even know a shuttle was sent up. They don't show it as much as they used to," Lorene said. "We all used to watch all the launchings, but it's not on TV anymore."
Many Hoosier families winter around the Sam Rayburn Reservoir, to the Taylors, who summer in rural Pierceton,
Orval's brother, Dan, lives nearby. Their son, Danny, lives 250 miles to the north, where the sounds of the shuttle's horrific reentry were also heard.
