BATON ROUGE — Gov. Jeff Landry announced that state offices would be closed through Thursday, asking Louisianans to "hang in there" for 36 more hours before conditions begin to normalize following Tuesday's winter blitz that blanketed the capital region with several inches of snow.

Landry and other officials said residents should stay off the roads if possible, warning that as the snow begins to melt, black ice — a slick coating of near-invisible icy glaze — could form on roadways, making it even harder to navigate safely.

"Even if you think the roads are starting to clear up, please continue to listen to local and state officials before you get back on the road," Landry said, adding to be extra cautious in shaded areas where snow and ice take longer to melt.

The governor said that the Governor's Office of Emergency Preparedness and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development are beginning to work with local authorities to help clear roads so crews can continue treating roads to make their transition back to normal conditions.

DOTD will continue to salt roadways to melt the snow and ice, but people driving on the roads are making their work harder.

DOTD head Joe Donahue said that one of the salting trucks got rear-ended by a motorist on Interstate 10 near the Texas border.

"Look out for our personnel and our equipment," Donahue said.

Donahue said priority route roads are open and will remain open.

State Police Superintendent Robert Hodges reiterated the need to stay off the roads, noting that troopers responded to more than 50 weather-related crashes.

"The vast majority of these crashes were people driving off the road and driving too fast for the cold conditions," Hodges said.

Hodges said that he wants people to be with their families "and enjoy the opportunity of a lifetime for many" instead of being on the roads, which could place DOTD units and first responders in danger.

Officials added that it is important not to forget that a day in the snow is not the end of the winter weather. Landry called the conditions "bitter, dangerously cold."

"What we just went through was the easy part," Landry said.

Conditions will continue to be at or below freezing on Wednesday and into Thursday, making this "prolonged hard freeze event" among the top two or three major snow storms in the southern part of the state's history, State Climatologist Jay Grymes said.

Temperatures could begin sliding into the teens, Grymes said. Even as the sun comes out and melts some ice and snow, the low temperatures will only lead to this water refreezing.

Landry also noted that, while outages have not been reported en masse, the state's virtual.la.gov website has an up-to-date outage map.

"Twenty-four or 36 more hours, Louisiana, if you can just hang in there, we would love to end this event with the minimum amount of damage to property and no loss of life," Landry said.