BATON ROUGE - Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and other parish officials said Thursday that Hurricane Francine left many without power and brought down trees around the parish, but damage here was relatively minor compared to other parishes and other storms.

East Baton Rouge was "largely spared the greatest impacts of this storm," Broome said.

Full activation of the Emergency Operations Center has been demobilized even as authorities work to clear roads and restore power.

Overnight, the parish counted 45 trees down on roads. So far, 28 of those have been cleared. Many of the remaining trees are tangled in utility lines, and parish workers are cooperating with utility companies to make sure those are cleared safely, Broome said.

The parish has 23 traffic lights without power and another nine that are flashing, she said. Those should all be treated as four-way stops until they are repaired.

Broome urged residents to stay off roads if possible to make way for cleanup and repair work.

Entergy spokesman Seth Schilling said that at the height of the storm, about 28,000 Entergy customers in the parish lost power. As of 11 a.m. Thursday, about 10,000 were still awaiting restoration. He said all parish hospitals are operating on grid power.

Baton Rouge Fire Chief Michael Kimble said that because the situation here is under control, he expects to send firefighters later today to harder-hit parishes to assist them.