BATON ROUGE - Hotels are typically filled for Mardi Gras, but they are booked up for a different reason Tuesday. Power outages have many families booking hotels just to stay warm.

"It's been very uncomfortable, inconvenient, cold," Herman Mitchell said.

When the power went out at Mitchell's home, he booked a room at the Crowne Plaza in Baton Rouge.

"The message we had from Entergy indicated that by Wednesday evening we will have power. I'm not sure about that, but that's what they said," Mitchell explained.

Power outages across the capital city, led to big business for local hotels. Nearly all rooms were sold out Tuesday afternoon.

"When the first room was booked, I got nervous. When the second hotel was booked, I got a little bit more nervous," Daniel Kemp said.

Kemp says it was a tough search to find a hotel for his family. Since there were no more rooms available at the Crowne Plaza, he headed to the Renaissance Hotel and lucked out.

"Yeah it's been tough. Our 2-year-old is sick, and my wife is seven months pregnant. The past 36 hours have been challenging, but we're doing great," Kemp said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 60,000 households were without power, with about half of those in East Baton Rouge alone.