BATON ROUGE - Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency for the state, Thursday evening.

This proclamation is necessary in order to make resources ready and able to assist citizens affected by severe weather.

The Governor and Lieutenant Governor will travel to Puachita, Caddo, and Bossier parishes Friday to evaluate storm damage and the state's response.

Due to severe weather impacting the region, state government offices in many parishes closed at 1 p.m. Thursday, according to Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne.

The offices will remain closed through Friday, Mar. 11. The list of parishes affected due the closure include:

Ascension
East Baton Rouge
East Feliciana
Iberville
Lafourche
Livingston
Orleans
Plaquemines
Pointe Coupee
St. Bernard
St. Helena
St. James
St. John the Baptist
St. Tammany
Tangipahoa
Terrebonne
Washington
West Baton Rouge
West Feliciana

State government offices in several North Louisiana parishes have also remained closed on Thursday. They include:

Bienville
Bossier
Caddo
Claiborne
DeSoto
Jackson
Lincoln
Morehouse
Natchitoches
Ouachita
Red River
Richland
Sabine
Union
Webster
West Carrol
Winn

Locally, the Mayor's Office announced that East Baton Rouge City-Parish employees would be dismissed at 2 p.m. Thursday due to inclement weather.

The Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness says they're continuing to monitor the risk for flooding that accompanies strong storms passing through the area in coming days.