6 p.m. update on winter storm: 12,295 still without power in Avoyelles

As of 6 p.m. Thursday, Avoyelles Parish was still one of the hardest hit areas by the Mardi Gras winter storm. There were still 12,295 of the parish's 21,717 utility customers without power. The Marksville area, served by Entergy, was one of the hardest hit in the parish, with 5,669 of Entergy's 5,764 customers without service. Cleco, which serves 15,252 of the parish's utility customers, still had 6,626 without electricity. The parish's third utility provider, SLEMCO in south Avoyelles, was reporting no outages among its 701 customers.

Statewide the storm that some call the President's Day storm, others the Mardi Gras storm and some have named Winter Storm Uri still had 105,248 utility customers in the dark.

In addition to knocking out power -- which in many cases also means a home's heating source -- many Avoyelles areas were still experiencing reduced or even no water service due to the effects of the storm.

Authorities were continuing to caution people not to make unnecessary trips due to hazardous road conditions.