The New Orleans Saints sent their players home Wednesday afternoon ahead of Hurricane Francine’s pending landfall.
The Saints had a call with city officials and were advised to be off the roads by midafternoon because the conditions would be worsening due to the storm. Meanwhile, Saints coach Dennis Allen said his staff would stay at the facility Wednesday night hoping to resume a normal practice day on Thursday.
“We’ll stay here this evening. 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.”
In addition, the team moved up practice by an hour on their indoor field, which allowed players to get in some work and have time to get home.
Hurricane Francine made landfall in Morgan City, Louisiana, which is about 85 miles outside New Orleans, on Wednesday evening. The Category 2 storm had maximum sustained winds near 100 mph.
The Saints are coming off a dominating 47-10 win over the Carolina Panthers and will look to improve to 2-0 on Sunday when they travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys.
