``BIG BOOM'' ALARMS TEXANS FALLEN DEBRIS PELTS SMALL TOWNS.

Byline: Dan Anderson and Lisa Mascaro Staff Writers

Across East Texas, buildings shook with a booming rumble that tore through the Saturday morning calm before debris started crashing down on farms and dense forestland like nothing residents could imagine.

Marlene Steptoe said her husband dived for cover when a 10-foot-long chunk of metal and several other small pieces fell on their chicken ranch near Chinquapin, Texas.

``It was just like hail on a tin roof. To me, in my mind, it looks like a big satellite.''

A crowd gathered around a piece of fallen debris in the steet outside the Fredonia Hotel on the historic city square in Nacogdoches, Texas.

``It looks like a piece of sheet metal, a little bigger than a stove top,'' said Cassey Billingsly, a college student who was working the front desk when guests frantically started calling when the building shook.

James Norton was at the kitchen table at his home near San Augustine when he heard explosions and went outside to investigate. Minutes later, debris started hitting the ground.

``The first one sounded like a rifle bullet, and I heard the `plunk' when it hit the ground,'' said Norton, who saw three 10-inch-long bolts.

``I figured it was a plane and I came in to turn on the TV and heard on CNN that they had lost contact with the shuttle.''

Overhead, he saw a zig-zag vapor trail.

``I really feel sorry for the families of those on board.''

One shop owner in Etoile said people thought it must be what an earthquake feels like. Others were sure it was some kind of explosion.

Mike Lout, a reporter at radio station KJAS-FM in Jasper, said he was just getting out of bed when he heard a loud boom.

``It was a sound I had never heard before. It was like a sonic boom that started in the west and slowly rumbled to the east, and it lasted for over a minute,'' he said.

``My dog's name is Lick and I turned to him and said, 'Lick, I don't know what the hell that was, but we'd better get dressed.''

Pat Ener, owner of the American Angler tackle shop in Broaddus, saw a charred piece of fallen metal, measuring 1 1/2-by-3 feet.

``It sounded like a B-52 coming over, rattling the trailer that I live in - except it went on forever.''

At the Louisiana border, Toledo Bend Lake resident Oleta Owens was watching shuttle coverage on the morning news when she heard a ``big boom'' and went outside.

``We started hearing the boom and the house started shaking. It was very loud. I did not see anything, but it sounded like a big truck having a blowout or a flat.''

``It shook every building here in Brookeland,'' said Rita Melvin, who works at the Mill Creek Grocery & Lodge where about 100 boats were on the lake with fisherman practicing for an upcoming tournament.

``It seemed like it just went on and on. Whole buildings just rattled.''

At the VFW hall in Hemphill, hundreds of volunteer firefighters from across the Sabine County region had gathered for search operations.

Fire Chief D.R. Boyett from the Bronson Rural Volunteer Fire Department estimated that 100 pieces of wreckage had been found along a 60-mile patch in East Texas.

``They were called in by neighbors, landed in people's yards,'' the fire chief said. ``We're just locating, identifying (the parts) by GPS and waiting for the officials from the federal government.''

Hemphill, a city of about 1,100, sits just outside the Sabine National Forest where he suspects many parts landed.

``It's going to be a lot in the woods, but that's going to be a needle in a haystack,'' Boyett said.

``It was a tremendous boom. It shook us all up,'' the fire chief added. ``The mood of the people right now is trying to find all we can.''

In Many, La., about 60 miles east of Nacogdoches, the Rev. John Pardue was getting ready for morning Mass at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church when he heard the explosion.

``People are shocked and stunned and sad,'' he said. ``I lowered the flag to half-staff and rang the church bells. It's just time we need to pray for our country and these families who've lost their loved ones.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Astronauts Mark Kelly, right, and Greg Johnson carry debris from space shuttle Columbia in the East Texas town of Nacogdoches.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

(2 -- 3 -- color) Left, a video image shows a piece of Columbia in Nacogdoches, Texas. The shuttle apparently broke apart in flames as it streaked over Texas. Above, flowers sit next to a piece of debris.

KTRE-TV

D. Fahleson/Houston Chronicle

(4 -- color) Adam Cole hugs his children Kate, 10, left, and Kurth, 12, before an assortment of flowers placed outside Johnson Space Center in Houston, in honor of the seven astronauts who died Saturday.

D. Fahleson/Houston Chronicle