Gas line cut and evacuation

Just the facts....
Ok, here is what I know about the events of Tuesday evening.
A contractor was putting in a new phone cable, and while boring, hit a gas line about 4PM. (key point, this was not Alliant or the City of Roland's fault!) Initially they didn't think it was a big deal. But that proved to be wrong. Alliant was called, and there were no shutoffs in the immediate vicinity, so they needed to shut the gas off of approximately 95 homes.

It was also discovered that natural gas was getting into the sewer system. That obviously could cause an explosion problem, especially into homes that are not plumbed properly, and if the gas could collect inside a house. So the decision was made to shut off electricity to homes in the affected area.

Because of the explosion risk, Alliant and Story County Emergency Management worked together to decide the evacuation area. The community center was opened as a place for those who needed to evacuate to hang out.

The power grid shutdown also affected the east side of Main Street, so the evac location was moved to the American Legion, across the street. The Library was also opened as a bit of a more friendly place for people with kids, than the American Legion.

By 930PM, the gas had been turned off, and Alliant was confident the gas had dissipated enough, that there was no explosion risk, so power was turned back on, and people could return to their homes if they wanted. However, the gas was going to remain off until the line was fixed.

Alliant went to all the homes where gas was turned off, and actually turned the gas off at the meters. When gas service is restored, Alliant will visit all homes and offer to light pilot lights. They will do this as soon as it is fixed, even if it is in the middle of the night. They will be hanging tags on the doors of homes that have been visited.

City Hall is being used as an operations center by Alliant, where they are keeping track of what homes have gas off, and will be checking off the homes that have service restored-and pilot lights lit, when that time comes.

That's pretty much what I have for now. Thanks for your cooperation, for those that had to evacuate. With a couple of exceptions, the reports that I have been given indicate people have been very cooperative, so that was nice to hear. Obviously all the interested agencies want to err on the safe side with the potential "explosive" situation. More details here when I get them.