The New Orleans Saints sent their players home early on Wednesday before the landfall of Hurricane Francine. City officials called for roads to be cleared as the storm conditions continued to worsen, so the team instructed players to head home.
Hurricane Francine, a Category 2 storm, made landfall in Terrebonne Parish, Lousiana on Wednesday hitting the U.S. Gulf Coast with winds close to 100 miles per hour, per the Associated Press.
Saints head coach Dennis Allen said that the coaching staff will remain at the team’s facility Wednesday night, allowing coaches to use generator power. Over 80,000 in the state of Louisiana have already lost power.
“We’ll stay here this evening,” Allen said, via ESPN’s Katherine Terrell. “We’ll probably find a corner of the room to lay down in at some point in time and get a little bit of sleep,” Allen said. “Because I think the most significant weather is gonna be this evening into the early morning hours. That’s kind of when we would be trying to wrap up. I don’t see anyone trying to get out of here in that type of weather.”
Head coach of the New Orleans Saints Dennis Allen looks on during the game against the Tennessee Titans at Mercedes Benz Superdome on August 25, 2024 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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The Saints previously evacuated for a hurricane in 2021 Hurricane Ida, moving their team to Texas for the conclusion of the preseason and the start of the regular season. In addition, their first home game of the season was moved to Jacksonville, Florida.
The Saints do not currently plan to evacuate New Orleans for Hurricane Francine.
“We felt like, obviously in this situation, we felt like we were going to be able to do our work and make sure we keep everybody safe, make sure that everybody’s family is safe,” Allen said. “And be able to do that and stay here. When it was Ida a few years ago, it was one of those where we didn’t feel like we were going to be able to get our stuff done. We felt like people might be at risk. So we took basically the whole football operation, and families and everybody, and we went to Texas.”
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The Saints are planning to hold a regular practice on Thursday as they prepare for their second game of the season at the Dallas Cowboys. New Orleans kicked off the season with a dominant 47-10 win, and are looking to begin the year 2-0 if they can get a win over Dallas.
