BATON ROUGE - East Baton Rouge Parish officials are working to winterproof the area ahead of next week's freeze.

"Now's the time to go ahead and respond to that, knowing that there's a hard freeze, three to four days, we're prepared for that," Director of the Mayor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Clay Rives said.

Pre-staging has begun with pallets of salt and sand ready, as well as barriers being placed near areas vulnerable to ice.

"With the ice, we'll put the salt and the sand before it freezes. It's a logistical issue. After the rain, we have to immediately deploy and start doing this," Rives said.

Rives said his office is working closely with DOTD along with other cities and agencies. Come Tuesday, it will be boots on the ground with hundreds of personnel on standby. Special attention will be paid to bridges in the area.

"It'll be our DPW, it'll be all our first responders, all of our essential employees in the parish will be working," Rives said. "If we cannot keep it from icing over, we'll put barricades out. I try to keep from driving on that icy situation."

For vulnerable populations, Rives said MOHSEP is ready to open a warming space if needed in the parish and that the Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul will have emergency shelters. St. Vincent de Paul Director of Community Relations Debra Blacher said the emergency shelter will open Sunday at 3 p.m. and a crowd is expected.

"We're trying to get as many people off the streets as possible to try to get them sheltered," Blacher said.

St. Vincent de Paul is also accepting donations of warm hats, gloves, sweatpants, blankets and hand warmers.

City officials ask those who can to stay home.

"We want to make sure our first responders can get to emergencies if needed. We don't want to cause more emergencies for just riding around checking out the scenery," Central Mayor Wade Evans said.

For tips on winterproofing homes, Rives recommends people visit the Red Stick Ready website.