Plant closing and notice period questions - what worked for you?

My employer announced that the site will close and gave us written notice. I do not know if I should start looking now or wait for severance news. What did the workforce office offer?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 8 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.

Keep everything in writing and save the confirmation numbers. It saved me later.