9/11/12 Where and what were you doing 11 years ago when you heard the news?

[WILCO]

I was working 3rd shift. Went to bed after getting the kids off to school. Phone rang. It was my mother telling me a plane had hit a tower at the trade center.
I told her we were under attack and I turned on the television. Was yelling at the t.v. when the first tower fell. Could only sit and watch as the rest unfolded. I'll never forget that day as long as I live.

[Wal']

Watching it all happen on the TV & not believing what I was seeing.

[Trey45]

I was recovering from what was then the 1st of 3 surgeries. My girlfriend called me to tell me to turn the TV on, I asked what channel, she said "all of them". I knew then that it was bad news.
I watched the first tower smoke and burn while on the phone with her, and watched in disbelief as the 2nd jet hit the 2nd tower.

[Dennis Eugene]

I was in a remote log camp it was a couple hours after it happened before we heard. I was working in a large heavy equipment shop when I heard and remember Mike and I climbing into the small cab of a hyd. log loader in order to listen on the AM radio. Dennis

[ErikO]

Driving to a customer's site in Addison, IL. It was weird driving into work this morning at 7:42am...

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I was getting ready to take a psychology exam and the professor came in and said if anyone needed to take it later, it would be fine, but didn't elaborate why. After I finished the exam, I asked somebody what happened, "a plane crashed in NY", I got to the closest television to watch the live footage and found out about the terrorist part.

It really shocked me when the buildings collapsed, I kind of expected the folks under the impact would get out, I guess I watch too many movies. In fact the first few hours of watching coverage almost felt like a movie. After all, how often does NY/DC/LA/Chicago get destroyed in Hollywood? I had to keep reminding myself that it was real. I also remember that cell phones and some land land lines were worthless.

[Love Life]

I was in Mr. C's woodshop class in Minnesota when he told us to knock off our usual shenanigans. On came the TV while the 1st building was hit. We watched as the 2nd building was hit.

Even as young as we were we understood what had happened and the significance.

[gbrown]

I was teaching a 6th grade Social Studies class when another teacher popped their head in the class room and told us a plane had crashed into the World Trade building. We all had televisions in the classrooms with cable. I turned mine on and the students and I watched. Quite a few tears that day. A newscaster was on the east bank of the Hudson with the tower smoking behind him across the river when suddenly he stopped and whirled around, then turned back and said another plane had hit the second tower. Disbelief, shock and horror is all I remember. The students kept asking who and why? At that time, no one knew. It was later in the morning that answers started coming.

[Ajax]

I was asleep, being on the night shift, next thing i knew i had my wife shaking me awake hollering to turn on the TV. Right after watching the second tower hit i was immediately called by my command and told to report to worked packed for deployement. It took 2 hours to get on base and to my command, I live 15 minutes from my command normally. we huddled in the ready room with the pilots and watched the aftermath unfold. I will never forget that day.


Andy

[KCSO]

Working day shift and we went on alert immediately. The funny thing was for the next two week against all profiling laws we checked out everyboody that even looked like a raghead, mostly at the request of the FBI.

[Wildcat]

Sitting in my office when my paralegal advised of the 1st strike. I'll never forget looking out the windows and seeing contrails of all the planes turning around to land.

[OBIII]

Talking with some co-workers at the AFOSI HQ bldg on Andrew's AFB. Was watching the first tower when the plane went into the second. Watching both towers still when the call came in that the Pentagon had been hit. Finally got a line out and phoned the wife. My kids were freaking out because they knew that I had worked off and on in the Pentagon. Racial profiling? Last time I checked islam was a form of religion, not ethnicity.

[429421Cowboy]

I was 8 years old then, i still remember my mother getting me and explaining what happened. I didn't really know there were people that wanted to hurt Americans for being Americans that bad until we all watched the second plane crash and learned about the other attempts. I also remember my mother explaining that this meant our country was about to go to war.

My oldest brother was due to come home from six months deployment in Saudi Arabia the very day it happened, i will never forget sitting up all night crying with my father waiting for some form of contact from him, and also knowing that this meant he was likely going back to war. I brings tears to my eyes remebering exactly how it all happened, and how helpless we all felt.

I will never forget that day. God bless the families of those who were lost, the firefighters that rescued as many as they could and gave their lives, as well as the men and women that have fought for our freedom.

[wallenba]

I had just checked on some items in our wharehouse and was returning to the office. I passed some co-workers gathered around a radio. Someone said, 'go to the break room now!' The TV was on, and the horror sunk in. A few minutes later and the second tower fell. It was all so surreal it was hard to believe it was really happening.
I called my elderly mother who I knew was home alone at her house. She lived under the approach path of the #23 runways of Detroit Metropolitan airport. She was scared to death it would happen here. I left work to be with her, but I had to stop and buy gas. There were very few cars on the road, and I was alone when I paid the Arab owners for the gas. I paused and realized I was giving them a blank stare. One asked if I had a problem. I said yes, and told them to find a TV set or radio.

[montana_charlie]

Driving home from work after the night shift. Reports started coming over the radio while I was buying gas.
CM

[blackthorn]

That morning I had gone to work as usual. I was at my desk by 5 AM. My co-worker came in around 6:30 or so and said to turn on the TV, that the trade center was under attack. We watched as that terrible tragedy unfolded. My office window faced the Richmond (BC) airport and I watched as two fighter aircraft from the US forced an airliner down onto the runway. It was the last plane in that morning and later we heard it was an offshore plane that had communication equipment problems and had failed to obey orders to land. One of my co-workers was a retired RCMP officer and he said that day that Binladden was behind the attack. That morning will be fresh in my memory till the day I die!

[mold maker]

Working with my crew while listening to FM radio talk show. Suddenly our light hearted joking was cut short with the news of the first plane impact. Disbelief and horror took over. Then the second plane hit, and it became clear that it was intentional. Rage and disbelief took over.
I had a scanner that I could pickup some of the chatter.
All our worlds changed that day.

[ErikT]

Getting ready to head in to work; I received a phone call from my command to bring in all of my gear and be ready for anything and everything. I then had to call all of my troops and tell them the same news. We all sat and watched the news for the rest of the day.

[Harter66]

I was a volunteer fire fighter then. I lived in a reception hole for most of the TV and radio so I didn't know anything about it until I walked into my work office at about 610 pdt on the Ammo Depot. They had locked it all down just a few minutes after I came through the gate. I was met by my coworkers asking if I'd heard.

1st I was shocked and just stared probably slack jawed, then the rage set in. I remember in the midst of all of the chatter about the horror of it all ,Aware Sadat had placed a personal call to George saying "we didn't have ANYTHING to do w/this . We will do everything we can to support your efforts in resolving this matter". That was when I knew we were in deep.........then I was paid for over a week of administrative leave.

Being a fireman at the time fueled my rage further as it felt more personal.

Today I'm left w/the distrust and blackness that can only be racism every time I see a broka (sp) or a slurpee slinger. It is very strange to me to have such a dark shadow hanging over me. Then again I regarded the USS Cole as same as Pearl............

[Adam10mm]

I had just woken up. My mother came in and told me we are being attacked in NYC. I looked at the TV and saw the second plane hit the tower. Then I wished my mother a happy birthday.

[Leslie Sapp]

I and my four year old son were checking on the hunting camp in preparation for deer season. As we were leaving the woods to go eat lunch with my wife, we heard a radio report of a plane hitting the first tower. By the time we got to town and in the restaurant, the other plane hit and we knew we were under attack.
I own a construction business. I did not receive any calls for new business until after Christmas that year. It was my son's last year of freedom before he started kindergarten, and for lack of much better to do, we hunted almost every day of that hunting season. My main memory of that season was how utterly clear and quiet the night skies at the camp were with no airplanes.

[popper]

At work. Wife called and said she heard something on the radio about a small plane crashing. Found a 13" BW TV in someone's office and watched for a minute or 2. Had to go back to work to combat the anger. My response to many of these attacks would resemble Truman's. Feel the same when TV reports the Ft. Hood murderer's gov. lawyer is back at court.

[9.3X62AL]

I and others looked on as the second tower was hit--I was in the lunch room at Jurupa Station, watching the news on TV. A few seconds later, my lieutenant said, "Detectives, suit up--get war bags ready, and have a rifle at hand if issued." As I got into uniform and readied my equipment, I knew that this day was one of few in one's lifetime where EVERYONE alive would remember every element of how they learned of this atrocity, where they were, or who told them--just like the JFK assassination.

This event was the 21st Century's Pearl Harbor. And like Pearl Harbor, it has produced another "GREATEST GENERATION", the young men and women fighting the Islamofascists and supporting their efforts in rear areas and on the home front. That isn't limited to American personnel--it includes Britons, Canadians, Australians, Kiwis, and soldiers of many other nations contributing to preserve civilization.

[sljacob]

I was on days off from work and was sitting in front of the tv with my coffee watching the morning news, when the first reports started coming in of a plane hitting the trade center all I could do was stare at the tv in disbelief. I called my mother and told her what was going on and to turn on the news just before the second plane hit. I spent the rest of the day glued to cnn watching the events unfold. The thing that I rember most of that day is how my heart fell to my knees as I watched the towers fall knowing that so many people were still inside.

[GRid.1569]

For me... 2 o'clock in the afternoon... woke from a night shift put on TV...
thought it was a special effect for a movie.... then saw the second plane go in...
there must be malfunction with traffic control or something....

Eh... this is looking serious... *** is going on......

[Recluse]

This event was the 21st Century's Pearl Harbor. And like Pearl Harbor, it has produced another "GREATEST GENERATION", the young men and women fighting the Islamofascists and supporting their efforts in rear areas and on the home front. That isn't limited to American personnel--it includes Britons, Canadians, Australians, Kiwis, and soldiers of many other nations contributing to preserve civilization.

Well said, Al.

We had woken up and were listening to WBAP 820 AM when our favorite morning host stopped his wisecracking and said, "Folks, we're going to break in with ABC News in New York. We've just received word that an airplane has accidentally crashed into one of the twin towers."

Being a pilot, I KNEW that airplanes don't "accidentally crash" into buildings. My wife and I were wondering if it was somebody in a Cessna or Piper or Beechcraft that had a medical problem while flying the Hudson corridor. . .

As we turned on the TV and saw the fire and smoke, we knew it wasn't a small airplane.

And then, and then. . . then we saw the second airliner fly directly into the second tower.

I turned to my wife and said, "We're being attacked."

My wife was a big muckety-muck at the Fortune 50 business headquarters where she worked and I was the big muckety-muck at the international ad agency where I worked. I went upstairs to the gun safe and pulled out my Mossberg 500 and my Mini-14. For the first time in my life, I regretted not having an AR15.

Threw those two firearms in the backseat of my truck, strapped on my 9mm with spare magazines--another first--and headed into downtown Dallas, listening to the radio. When I heard the Pentagon had been hit, I knew we were at war. Then came reports of United 93 and everyone knew that plane had been headed for the Capitol, but at the time, nobody was sure why it crashed in the fields.

Got to our office tower--35 stories--and closed the entire building down. Told our department heads to e-mail our employees and have them check the company website for info on when we'd re-open. I then instructed our managing directors to contact our clients and explain that we were shutting down until we got a handle on what was going on.

By noon, the building was vacant except for our security guards. I gave a list of approved visitors to our security chief and we locked it down.

On the way back home to the northern suburbs, it was eery. A lot of businesses had closed down and there was an exodus of people leaving. Back home, for whatever reason, my wife and I didn't want to sit around the house so we went out to Lake Lewisville, got on our boat and listened to the radio.

It was eery as hell. For one, there was zero wind blowing. Zero. Highly unusual for that time of year and Lake Lewisville is known for being kind of rough, sea-wise, in the fall and winter.

Second thing that was eery is that, just like I wrote in my book, Lake Lewisville marks the northern outer marker for all in-bound flight to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. You can sit out on the lake and it's one airliner after another, times four, five and sometimes six, spread out for final approach to each of the six runways at DFW.

But as the order had been given to shut down the airways, my wife and I sat out on the boat and watched the airline traffic slow, then dwindle, then completely stop.

Never had we ever heard that lake so quiet or seen it so still.

Our best friends live and work in Manhatten, and Craig did a lot of business in Tower 5. Every ten to fifteen minutes I was trying to reach him via cell phone, and couldn't get through.

Finally, about six o'clock our time (Central), he calls me. He had been in Tower 5 when the planes struck. He caught the tail-end of the Vietnam War as a SF medic and was doing triage duty and pulling people out of the rubble. A firefighter friend of ours up there snapped a picture of him and sent it to me several weeks later. He looked like bloody hell.

My rage over what happened and for who did it has not lessened one bit in eleven years. If anything, it has grown stronger.

:coffee:

[wgr]

i was just getting home from a 12 hour shift

[gsdelong]

I was getting ready for work and having a phone call with my Daughter who was stationed in Spangdahlem Germany at the time. She was calling to tell us her husband was being sent to Bosnia TDY. Rushed the phone call due to work and could not get her back on the phone for over three days. TDY was cancelled due to increase of airbase activity.

[imashooter2]

I was reading a Clancy novel in the waiting room at the dentist's while my wife was getting a root canal. The receptionist and nurse were watching a TV behind the desk with concerned looks on their faces. I asked what happened and they said a horrible accident in NY. A plane has crashed into the WTC. I walked over to the desk to see just in time to watch the second plane come in. We all knew it was no accident at that point.

Drove the wife home after and then went back to the Boeing plant (I was making Apache airframes at the time). The guards were no $hit serious. Trucks blocking the access roads and the entire force out of the shacks and active. I was expecting to see a lot of guys standing around talking, but everyone was head down and pounding rivets...

[fatelk]

It was my day off and I had slept in late, since I'd been working some long shifts. I didn't turn on any news that morning, but I had an old car to sell since I'd recently bought a new one.

I called the newspaper to place an ad in the classifieds, and was surprised because the lady that took the call seemed distant and rude. I said I wanted to place an ad and she took it down but didn't say anything else.

I had a doctor appointment that morning and the whole office was upset. They told me what was going on (this was after both buildings had gone down). It took a while for the magnitude to sink in. They kept telling me "They took down the World Trade Center". What do you mean they took it down? Who is "They"? I will remember that the rest of my life.

I went over to a friend's house, who lived relatively close to the local (small) airport. I was standing in his driveway when I heard a loud plane. I saw this fighter jet take of in a circling arc and accelerate at a high angle. I distinctly remember an overwhelming patriotic feeling- there goes America's Best- Go get em! I was hoping there were some bad guys still out there so he could blast them out of the sky.

Later I was in the office at work. The whole crew was just sitting around watching TV. Production was completely halted in the whole fab. I remember one of the guys (higher up) kept laughing and making jokes. I thought it was terribly disrespectful, but in retrospect I think it was a nervous thing, a mental defense mechanism to keep from losing it.

[Lonegun1894]

I was on base, watching a movie with some friends at night (non-US timezone), when the movie was interrupted with news of the first plane hitting. We stayed and watched til the second plane hit. At that point, we knew our suspicions about the first plane were right, and we all just got up, went to the armory downstairs to grab our weapons, came back to the rooms to grab our bags and left. We stayed next to that C-130 for a week, taking turns getting the team bag lunches cause we didn't know where we were going, but we weren't going to miss it. It took a while, but we finally got to go. I'm still ready to go back and do it again if needed, and I will never forgive or forget. If anything, I wish I could have done more.

[JeffinNZ]

Being 'X' hours ahead of you guys, I awoke to the news at 6am local time. Shot out of bed like a rocket. It was and remains hard to comprehend.

[just.don]

First day at a new job. Doing the same thing I always do but a different signature on my pay check. Stayed at my bench and worked through it.
Took me awhile, but I caught up.

[Lefty SRH]

I was at work running a Moore No.1 jigbore machine. My shop foreman came inot the shop area and announced wew were under attack. I was in total disbelief! I think I killed the part that was on my machine.
When the plane went into the Pentagon I couldn't stop thinking about my Uncle, he was a 2 star AirForce general at the time. Luck has it, he had left the Pentagon 30 minutes before the plane hit.

[MT Gianni]

I went to work that morning having just returned from putting my daughter in a clinic in Philidelphia where we were not sure that she would leave in any state of health. My concerns were not of the Nation, State of NY or DC areas, it was just on how am I going to go get my daughter and how many guns to take. We flew back three weeks kater and were able to view the impact on travelers more quickly than many.

[SciFiJim]

I was on my way to work and sitting on the side of the road getting a traffic ticket for cutting a corner too close (unsafe passing due to the no passing lines). I was listening to the news while the officer wrote the ticket. They announced that a small plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. I figured that some idiot had been flying too close while sight seeing and had flown around one tower and into another. By the time I got to work 30 minutes later, it was clear that it was no accident. A TV was out on the workroom floor for all to see and listen to all day. I remember the rage within me as I watched both towers collapse.

That evening ,with tears in my eyes, I told my wife that if the Navy would have me back I would reenlist. But at 38 and a disabled vet, they turned me down.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I was supposed to be working with a tech Mark on some severs we had in tower 1 , I was in Wisconsin I do remote server support, but he had to cancel and post pone the work the week before , so I was headed in to work late I had the news on and watched it all as they first showed it , we had 2 customers offices in tower 1 I remember counting floors trying to tell if the site on floor 81 made it out

i kept wondering what was next , thinking if they orchestrated 4 planes , there must be more coming , a second wave what would it be.

[rockrat]

Had dropped the daughter off at school. For some reason, I didn't turn on the TV that morning. Unusual for me. Wife and I went in to town, for breakfast. On the way home, some DJ was talking about a plane hitting a building in New York. Thought that he was one sick guy, that the joke was in very poor taste.
Got home and turned on the TV. They were showing a replay of the first plane hitting. Right then I knew it wasn't an accident, and that they needed to evacuate both towers , NOW.

About 10 min. later , the second plane hit. I thought, get those people out of there. With the fire, the steel in the building is going to lose its strength and it could come down. When the first tower fell, I felt heartsick as I knew there was a large loss of life and there would be more if they didn't get the second evacuated.

I heard about the Pentagon, Dad had been stationed there and I had a cousin that worked there. Called Dad and asked if he had heard anything about Mike, but he told me that Mike had retired about a week earlier and was no longer there.

Later, when more information came out, I thought that there should be alot of glass made somewhere.

I am a pilot also, it was so strange to not see anything flying anywhere.

[gnoahhh]

I was working on a mega-yacht tied up at our work dock, that we were renovating when the rock-n-roll radio station we were listening to cut in with a news flash about the first plane. I jumped up and turned on the flat screen in the salon (where we weren't supposed to be) and we watched the rest of the story unfold on a live news feed. The boat's owner happened upon us as were standing there and started to chastise us for being there, until I calmed him down and pointed to the TV screen.

My best friend was on vacation in Normandy, France, and was actually standing on the D-Day beaches when he heard. He was touched by the outpouring of grief from the locals- many of whom wept openly. It took him quite a while to arrange a flight home, and during that process the American flag he had stitched to one of his bags got him a lot of hugs from foreign fellow travelers, and even a French security guard.

That night I joined a huge crowd at the city dock here in Annapolis, singing patriotic hymns. It was pretty somber. Then, out of nowhere, a ratty old rusty Chevy LUV pickup came barreling onto the scene. In it were two obviously drunk redneck kids shouting profanities. Across the back of the bed, where the tailgate would've been, they had erected a homemade sign hand painted on a greasy piece of scrap plywood. It read, and I kid you not, quote- "KILL ALL THE ARYABS[sic], AND F*CK THERE[sic] CAMELS". We were stunned. (I hope they have since learned to spell.)

[montana_charlie]

My rage over what happened and for who did it has not lessened one bit in eleven years. If anything, it has grown stronger.
And, yesterday, the anniversary of that attack, the same kind of people attacked our embassy in Egypt and our counsulate in Libya.

GW said through the bullhorn that we were gonna kick *** and take names.
I think it's time to say to hell with the names ...

CM

[sargenv]

I was walking into work when someone from one of the offices was on his way to coffee let me know that a plane crashed into the wtc.. I got in and immediately logged on to any news site I could find.. being 3 hours behind, a lot was going on before we were even out of bed.. I emailed ppl (I work on contract for a .gov agency) in DC asking what they knew, if anything.. at that point, she said things were crazy and that the Pentagon had been hit.. I knew that it was no accident that the WTC was hit.. We all got sent home around 8a pacific.. I went home and watched the news in horror.. Don't really know what else, it's all become kind of a haze.

I arrived at work Weds am to see that the local transit agency had armed patrols.. and there was big security at the building I worked at.. after a few days, it all calmed down locally and went back to bus as usual.

[Jim]

I was standing in front of the counter at Ferguson Enterprises in Charleston, SC waiting for some pipe fittings to be loaded on my truck. Everybody in the whole place, including about a dozen customers, were all watching the TV on the wall behind the counter. I saw the second plane hit live.

We were doing a job at the Charleston Air force Base and I went there from Ferguson's. About an hour later, I was up on the scaffold running pipe. Three uniformed and VERY armed Air Force Security personnel came in the building. "Sir, you need to take your helper, get in your truck and get off the base NOW.

My helper starting picking up tools as I was coming down the scaffold. One of the Security officers told him "Sir, leave your tools, get in your truck and get out NOW. If you do not comply, we will take you in custody."

I was out the gate in three minutes.

[bruce drake]

I was a Platoon Leader with the 101st Airborne at Ft. Campbell, KY when the War started for America. I had the TV on the news while I was cleaning up from the morning PT Run when the first plane crashed into the tower. By the time I got dressed and ran out the door and drove the mile to the Company HQ, the Ready Room TV was showing the second plane crashing into the 2nd tower.

My wife was working at a daycare center out in town and when the gates locked down I called her and told her to stay with friends while we sorted things out and figured what the Division was going to do.

Shortly later my platoon and I were driving north to protect a federal site in Kentucky for a couple of weeks and my wife was able to come on base the next day after her car was searched from hood to trunk and her ID Card was scrutinized at the 1 gate they had opened up for family members to come in.

Shortly later came our responses in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the last 11 years, I've spent over 5 of those years in those two countries ensuring that an attack would not happen again on American soil.

Unfortunately, the Terrorists have remembered that our Embassies are considered American Soil and have decided to launch deadly attacks at our people there.

Bruce

[Gliden07]

I'll never forget where I was!! I was at work selling Electrical supplies when the phone rang it was my Mother telling me about the first plane hitting the Tower! We had a display of intercoms in our Showroom we turned on one of the radios to listen to the news and then the second plane hit! I knew right then and there it was a Terrorist attack!

[firefly1957]

I was at work many of us used personal radios I forget what I was listening to but many people listened to Howard Stern someone I detest. It was a lowlife Jeff across from me that first said something and I switched over to Stern to hear what was going on . We were are confused about how it could happen until the second plane roared in then everyone of us knew it was an attack. That morning I had stopped at a Meijers store to buy 38 special ammo for my CPL class that weekend well they did not sell handgun ammo before 7 a.m. ? so on the way home I went back in same guy was at the counter and he refused to sell me ammo I told him I wanted it in writing so he brought the store manager over . The manager asked why I wanted it in writing that I was denied ammo and I told him for a complaint against your stores licence for refusing a legal sale he said good luck I said all I need is your names for the police report to get it started . He made a call and told me I could have 1 box of ammo I told him better make it too! While this was going on he got a page from corporate and was told to raise the gas price at their station out front.
I do not think I will forget leaving the house at 4:30 a.m. on my way to work while there was no air traffic in the skies it was a bit eerie just knowing that no planes were flying a couple of mornings I saw military jets in the sky they appeared to be doing mock combat with each other no lights on but I could see the contrails and every now and then one would rise into the sunlight and show as a bright spot.

I do not know how many of you remember this but many businesses were going to shut down lay off thousands of people and President Bush called the business leaders to Washington and said look nothing has changed if you keep building there will be sales but if you stop then Bin Laden has done what he wanted and destroyed our economy. Well things were slow for awhile but we did get back to work like he predicted . NOW IF ALGORE WAS PRESIDENT I WOULD BET HIS APPEASEMENT JUST LIKE OUR CURRENT OFFICE HOLDER WOULD HAVE DONE VERY SERIOUS HARM TO AMERICA .

[44man]

I was getting ready to go to work at United Air lines. It was very personal to me.
The change for employees was so bad with security (I had 42 years) that I retired at the first chance. I refuse to go near an airport anymore.

[41 mag fan]

I was at work, watching the news from the break room. I could see the TV from the welder I was sitting at.
Behind me we had full view 20x20 windows across the whole building. They had scrambled F16's from Andrews Air Force base, I believe. They were flying over the then 2nd largest power plant in the world, barely 12 mi from us.
We could see 2 of them constantly flying over patrolling the area. If the terrorists had hit the coal burning plant, they'd of cut off alot of power to NY. They wholesale it on the grid, to the NY area and a few other eastern states