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LSU football relocating to Houston, Tulane moving to Birmingham ahead of Hurricane Ida

LSU is moving all football operations to Houston to get out of the way of Hurricane Ida.

The team started moving from Baton Rouge to Houston, where the No. 13 Tigers will use the Houston Texans’ facilities until they take off for Southern California on Thursday for their season opener against UCLA on Saturday night.

LSU held a scrimmage at Tiger Stadium on Saturday afternoon, and was expected to be on the road for Houston by Saturday night.

The Tigers are the latest Louisiana team to alter its plans due to the storm.

Tulane moved to Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday to avoid the storm ahead of its season opener against Oklahoma next week. The Green Wave volleyball team joined the football team, too.

The New Orleans Saints canceled their preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals on Friday afternoon. The game had already been rescheduled from Saturday night to Saturday afternoon, but the two teams opted to cancel it completely.

Arizona was already in the air when the decision was made, and diverted its plane back to Phoenix. The Saints then left New Orleans and set up shop in Dallas, where they’ll utilize the Cowboys’ facilities.

When will Hurricane Ida hit?

Hurricane Ida is expected to make landfall in Louisiana late on Sunday night or early on Monday morning.

Officials predict that the storm could be a Category 4 hurricane when it hits land, and could hit the state with sustained winds of up to 130 miles per hour. Officials warn that storm surges could be as high as 15 feet in some areas, and total rainfall accumulation could be as high as 20 inches.

“We can sum it up by saying this will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in Louisiana since at least the 1850s,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said Saturday, via The New York Times.

If the storm hits the state on Sunday, it will be on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — the Category 5 storm that battered New Orleans, killed more than 1,800 people and caused more than $100 billion in damages in 2005.

“It’s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida making landfall on that anniversary,” Edwards said, via The New York Times. “But I also want you to know that we’re not the same state that we were 16 years ago.”