The last video transmitted from the craft - starting a few minute before reentry is here:
Columbia reentry prep starting at about 3:00 into the video.
At 8:30 into the video, looking out the windows, they start to see distinctive plasma "swirl patterns".
Shortly after that ground control can be heard over the radio that they are starting to see "some G's".
At 9:09 "a hundredth of a G".
At 9:20: Describing the violent reentry effects, "You definitely don't want to be outside now."
At 10:40: Capsule video ends and commentary begin.
There was continued conversation with ground control beyond this video.
Among the first worrisome signs were a tendency of the craft to yaw to the left and the over-heating of a water bottle stored in the capsule near the port wing.
The ultimate destruction of the craft happened when it lost access to some of its port-side control surfaces.
At that moment, the craft tumbled into a rapid spin while travelling horizontally - a kind of snap roll. At Mach 12 or 13, the structure started to break apart. The forces were sufficient to snap the restraints holding the astronauts in their seats. From personal experience, I can report that snap rolls are disorienting - visual cues change so rapidly as to be thoroughly useless. And, of course, that final Columbia roll was certainly more rapid and forceful than anything I have experienced.
Overall, the situation went from worrisome to unsurvivable in less than a minute, and from comfortable to unsurvivable in a matter of seconds.