With their preseason finale now called off, the New Orleans Saints will be evacuating ahead of Hurricane Ida.
The team will head to Dallas ahead of the storm, according to a report from NOLA.com.
The team was originally set to host the Arizona Cardinals in third week of the NFL's preseason, but the game was eventually called off after initially moving up the start time from 7 p.m. to noon. The Saints will travel Saturday, and would practice at the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium in Arlington should the storm force their stay to be extended, according to the report.
Ida was nearing the Gulf Coast Friday evening and was expected to rapidly strengthen into a major storm, with potential to become a Category 4 storm with sustained winds over 130 mph before it makes landfall in South Louisiana at some point late Sunday or early Sunday morning.
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Along with high winds, the storm has the potential to drop up to 20 inches of rain in parts of Louisiana by Monday morning. There's been a mandatory evacuation ordered for areas outside the levee system in Orleans Parish.
If Ida impacts New Orleans, it would mark the second consecutive year the city was impacted by a hurricane. Last year it was Zeta that passed directly over New Orleans as a Category 1 storm and left a majority of the city without power. Ida isn't expected to cross directly over New Orleans, but would still carry intense winds, rains and storm surge to create dangerous conditions for the area and much of south Louisiana.
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