We don't have gas at home but major damage was caused to a gas main yesterday 12 miles away so 3500 properties have been without gas since about 4pm. As someone trying to nudge town council and others to get organised about #EmergencyPlanning and #ExtremeWeather response and general #CommunityResilience it has been interesting to observe what happened. Official response from Northern Gas Networks took about 3 hours and in the meantime plumbers, and people like me were getting lots of calls from older people asking what was going on. When I tried to call the advice number the AI bot on the website directed me to, they had no info and could just confirm gas was off in our area which was something I already knew. When they did arrive in town the gas folk were excellent, set up an HQ at a local hotel and been visiting houses and giving out info and switching gas off if need be. A customer support centre, heaters and now hot food are available from the hotel. The pipe is now repaired and they are beginning to reconnect houses and checking door to door. Many of the older folk we work with grew up on farms with no electricity or running water so they have been absolutely fine and just wrapped up well.. food places and pubs generally stayed open with a limited menu - all pubs and the railway station have real fires and have been offering warmth to anyone who needed it. Several people offered firewood and coal deliveries or hot food or (electric) showers so feels like it's been a bit of a gentle 'trial run' for a local community emergency and a heartwarming reminder that in a crisis - round here at least - people generally want to help each other. https://www.northerngasnetworks.co.uk/incident/settle-hellifield-long-preston/