Nearly 100,000 customers were without power in Louisiana as heavy, wet snow caused widespread outages in the state and in Mississippi earlier today.
The outages in Louisiana are concentrated around Baton Rouge and on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, the Associated Press reports. East Baton Rouge Parish has received between one and three inches of snow, according to the mayor’s office, and more than 13,000 were without power in the area as of 1:35 p.m.
City-parish officials in Baton Rouge are anticipating road and bridge closures later today and overnight. The main concern is wet roads freezing and becoming icy tomorrow morning.
The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory until 4 p.m. today, and a hard freeze warning is in effect from 6 p.m. until 10 a.m. on Saturday. The Weather Service is warning of black ice, especially on bridges and elevated roadways with moisture.
The area under hard freeze warning is mainly along and north of the Interstate 10/12 corridor. Overnight lows could approach 20 degrees in some areas.
Workers conducted de-icing at the airport this morning and this afternoon scraped snow from the road on the Central Thruway.
Nearly 80,000 were without power today in Mississippi, mainly around McComb and Hattiesburg, AP reports.
