Sat, bundled up and bleary eyed, around empty cups of tea and coffee sprawled across a table is a group of elderly neighbours.
They have been evacuated from their Northenden flats in anticipation of Storm Franklin hitting Greater Manchester in force, and rare 'danger to life' warnings being put in place.
It's been a long night for them - and a dramatic one.
At 9pm on Sunday night, February 20, they were warned they may have to leave their homes, several of them ground floor apartments, for fear of being flooded.
They were moved to Didsbury Mosque shortly after, where they remain 12 hours later.
But while some anxiously wait to see what is in store for them back at home, and admit that they 'don't know what they're going back to', a handful revel in their unexpected evening.
The eight residents taken in by the mosque have a collective age reaching into the hundreds.
They have seen far worse, they say, than anything a bit of flood water could do, as one man recounts the 'freezing cold' of being evacuated from his school during the Second World War.
Joy Adams, 83, told the Manchester Evening News about the moment she was evacuated from her flat in Boat Court.
"It was announced over a at around 9pm that we might be evacuated, then another one to tell us that we were, in fact, to be evacuated," she said.
"The instructions were to go and get our stuff ready, and then we left at about 10pm, got here at half past.
"The people here have been very good, helping us with our bags, giving us tea and coffee. The rest of the night was ours.
"They sat with us laughing and talking."
A far cry from a bleak evacuation, the small group were treated to pizzas and biscuits - and exchanged stories and songs with those volunteering at the mosque.
Dulcie Green, 88, said: "We've had drinks of tea, we've had pizzas, we've had everything that we needed. And we've had a jolly good laugh as well.
"I feel as if I've been on a hen night, not an evacuation!
"I'm going to come back and see them, and they want to come and see us. So it's been lovely."
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Dulcie was in two minds about whether she would leave her flat as the storm rolled in.
"I honestly didn't want to come," she said. "I thought 'should I stay, should I go?' But I thought I should use my common sense and go, the wind was so bad we thought we were going to take off.
"I've actually had a good night. We've been pulling their legs and saying we'll be back tonight - which I hope we're not, we've had no sleep so I've got to catch up on that today.
"I'm not nervous about going back home today. I'm hoping that I've got a swimming pool, I live downstairs. I'm hoping the men are in and they're putting tiles on it. I want blue ones. I'll get my cossy on if I get home and it's like that.
"13 months ago we were last evacuated because the river flooded. We went to the civic centre in Wythenshawe and then went to a hotel in town at 4am. It was bitterly cold because there was no heating or anything.
"This has been much better, even though it's not nice to come, we've been very well looked after. We can't thank the community organisers enough. We've made friends for life tonight."
"It was a bit of a shock that we were being told to leave," added Susan Warwick, 69.
"But once we got here and met everybody, it was perfect. No worries at all. They've made us laugh so much and taken our minds off what was going on at home."
Tracey Pook, the community engagement coordinator for Didsbury Mosque, had been making preparations since 7.30am on Sunday morning, just in case any nearby residents would need help.
"At about 2.30pm I was asked if we could open the centre, I got a taxi straight here and we were ready," she said.
"The first residents started arriving at around 10pm, they were nervous - they had to leave their homes, they didn't know what was going to happen. Our job is to relax people.
"We've had a great night, we've laughed so much, shared stories, jokes, sang songs.
"It may sound silly because of the circumstances, but I've loved it.
"This mosque is a community centre, and being in Didsbury as part of the community, making sure we're here for them is very important to us."
But amid the community spirit, for Joy, worries remain over what she'll be met with when she walks back through her door.
"Unfortunately, we've not had a wink of sleep, none of us did," she says.
"We don't know what's happened to our homes. We're going back into unknown territory. This is the first time I've been evacuated from my home."
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