With Hurricane Ida threatening, LSU football will head to Houston a week before it opens the 2021 season against UCLA.
The team was set to relocate Saturday, and would head from there straight to Los Angeles later in the week, spokesman Michael Bonnette confirmed. The team was scheduled for a mock game before it headed out of town.
Coach Ed Orgeron's typical Monday press conference has been canceled, according to a report from The Advocate.
The decision to head to Texas is similar to the evacuation plan from the New Orleans Saints, who relocated to Dallas where they will safely practice at AT&T Stadium in Arlington as Ida impacts Louisiana. The team's preseason finale against the Arizona Cardinals was called off as the forecasts for the storm became increasingly concerning.
Related
The storm tracked into the Gulf overnight Saturday and was expected to strengthen quickly to as high as a Category 4 storm with winds in excess of 130 mph as it crossed the exceptionally warm waters heading to the Louisiana coast. The track of the storm has remained remarkably consistent, with all projections for the storm having it landfall at some point in south Louisiana west of New Orleans.
The storm is expected to weaken to a Category 1 after landfall, with the track continuing through Louisiana and passing over Baton Rouge. Along with hurricane and tropical storm force winds, the storm is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge along the coast, and as much as 20 inches of rain by Monday morning in some areas.
National Weather Service forecaster Ben Shot said Saturday morning that regardless of where the storm makes landfall, it will bring with it devastation in the areas struck directly. He encouraged anyone who had the option to leave the area to do so.
“It’s going to be horrible," Shot said. "Your home is never going to look the same. Your neighborhood is never going to look the same. And that’s not hype."
Related
The storm is expected to make landfall at some point Sunday afternoon or evening, with the current track projecting Ida to come ashore in the area of Terrebonne Parish.