La. Shelters Fill, Strawberry Farmers Worry

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Homeless shelters are filled while farmers worried about meeting the Valentine's Day demand for chocolate-dipped strawberries as an arctic blast of cold air covered Louisiana.

The National Weather Service says it probably will be the winter's last really cold spell for Louisiana, where temperatures should be into the 60s and even 70s by the middle of next week.

Summer Grove Baptist Church in Shreveport has been sheltering about 40 people a night for the last few days. In New Orleans, the Ozanam Inn has had 39 to 46 in "freeze night" cots but expected to fill its maximum 50 Thursday night.

And on Lake Pontchartrain's north shore, strawberry plants are all covered up against the cold. They won't be uncovered until it warms up.