Icy weather ground the Baton Rouge area to a virtual halt Tuesday, closing schools, businesses, and major highways across much of south Louisiana. Even colder conditions are expected Wednesday morning.

Emergency crews responded to a number of fires Monday night and Tuesday, including one blamed on a space heater being too close to flammable material. The blaze at a home on Byron Street left one person in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns.

Schoolchildren across the region enjoyed an extended Martin Luther King Day break, and districts across the region were already announcing closures for Wednesday as the frigid air remains in place. 

Several businesses either delayed their openings Tuesday or didn't open at all, depending on whether their employees could make it to work. Utility crews labored with varying degrees of success to keep the lights on.

"We're getting some reports of downed power lines. When you get a trace or up to an eighth of an inch (of ice), it can (break) some of those weakened limbs on trees that can impact power lines," David Freese, a spokesman for Entergy Louisiana, said in an interview on WBRZ's 2uneIn.

At mid-morning, the power was out for about 9,200 Entergy customers. Demco, which serves predominantly rural areas east of Baton Rouge, reported 2,900 outages.

"It's going to fluctuate. Outages may go up and down," Freese said. "The icy conditions may stick around for a little while. Some more of those weakened limbs may fall and break."

WBRZ viewers shared videos and photos of the rare Louisiana winter wonderland. 

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development closed large sections of Interstate 10, diverting traffic onto Airline Highway (U.S. 61) and U.S. 190 to ferry traffic toward New Orleans and Lafayette. The Plaquemine Ferry shut down. 

Temperatures didn't rebound much Tuesday, barely reaching the 30s. Readings were expected to fall into the teens Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. North winds gusting to 25 mph during the day, and averaging 5 to 10 mph tonight, will make things feel much worse.

"My message is 'Please, stay home," East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said. "We don't want anyone to get injured and we certainly don't want people to succumb to the arctic blast of cold weather."

The temperature dipped to 19 at Baton Rouge's Metro Airport, giving the region its first hard freeze since the temperature fell to 20 in the days leading up to Christmas in 2022. (In all of 2023, the lowest temperature was 29, recorded last March.)

The icy blast rolling through southern Louisiana was part of a system that placed nearly half the nation's population under some sort of winter weather warning or advisory. About 150 million Americans were affected, according to the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

The Associated Press reported that the temperature fell to -51 in Saco, Montana, 37 miles from the Canadian border, as Arctic air moved south. Low temperatures Monday may also have impacted turnout at the Iowa caucuses. Temperatures were below zero across much of Iowa as caucuses opened.

Forecasters initially believed wet weather would have exited the area well before the frigid air arrived Monday, but revised predictions when it was clear the advancing cold front would arrive quickly enough to coat much of Louisiana with a thin layer of ice.