BATON ROUGE – The Ace Hardware on Highland Road bustled with activity Thursday morning ahead of the freezing temperatures expected to sweep across much of Louisiana.

Dennis Kelly was among those buying supplies to wrap his pipes, just in case.

“I’m also fixing the pipe that broke in the last freeze,” said Kelly, referring to the days last year that left the capital region chilled. “It’s just leaking a little bit.”

He and others said they can only hope that this year’s cold snap won’t be as severe as last year’s.

The hardware store was running low on faucet covers but there was still plenty of insulation for pipes.

Mike Ponder said he just bought a new house and didn’t want to risk anything happening.

“I am hoping it was not as bad as last year. That was miserable,” he said. “I will have all my supplies and everything ready.”