Gas service is restored

Natural Gas service has been restored to all of Roland. As of 1130AM, 15 homes still do not have gas service, as Alliant has been unable to contact the homeowner. Unlike electric, where they can just turn the power back on, for gas, they had to shutoff at the meters to each house. Then, when contact with the homeowner is made, Alliant will turn on the meter, and then assist in lighting pilot lights. Depending on the device, if the pilot light is not lit, gas would just flow, and obviously cause a really big flame if somebody were to spark something in a house. So that is why each homeowner needs a personal contact.

I had to work last night for my real job. I got back into Roland about 2:30 AM and stopped down at City Hall. A team lead was there keep track of the efforts, and there were 12 Alliant employees helping to restore service to homes. It was a nice thing it was not that cold last night, about 40 degrees at 3AM, so people shouldn't have gotten too cold without their gas service.

All in all, this went pretty well. We had help from the Story City fire department, with the lead by the Roland Fire Department, in securing the area, and notifying residents about the event.

Story County Emergency Management had both employees in town, helping co-ordinate efforts, and make sure the "evacuation shelters" were open.

Just got off the phone with Keith Morgan, Emergency Management Director for Story County. He wanted to emphasize it would really help if we could get ahold of the 15 homeowners. I don't want to list who they are here on a public forum. But if you know someone who is out of town for the holiday, and might not have their gas turned back on yet, please let me know, or have them call Alliant at 800-822-4348. The nice thing is the temperature is not going to drop below freezing until Saturday night, there is still time to find people and get their heat turned back on.