Plant closing and notice period questions

I received a formal notice about a mass layoff at my workplace. I worked as an operations analyst before this. I do not know if I should start looking now or wait for severance news.

Start your search early. I wish I had begun the day of the notice.

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 7 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.