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A warming shelter will be set up beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Anderson Grove Baptist Church for residents in Stanly County without heat due to the widespread natural gas outage that occurred on Tuesday, according to Stanly County government, which just posted the news on social media sites.

The shelter will be staffed for the evening by officials within the county’s human services department and security will be provided.

The church is at 2225 E. Main St. in Albemarle.

Roughly 3,000 people have been impacted since a natural gas transmission main line in Oakboro was struck by a third-party contractor Tuesday evening. Several businesses and homes are currently without heat and nine area schools closed today as a result.

Piedmont Natural Gas has had crews on site since Tuesday night and repairs have begun on the damaged pipeline. Due to the extent of the damage, PNG anticipates starting to restore service Thursday and it should likely extend into Friday, according to PNG spokesperson Zachary Vavricka.

“Right now the goal is to have restoration completed by Friday,” Vavricka said.

In addition to the work happening Thursday, crews “will be working around the clock all day Thursday and Friday to get it done with,” Vavricka said.