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Like many people of New Orleans and southeast Louisiana, the 16th-ranked LSU Tigers football team was forced to flee Hurricane Ida last month.
The Tigers, led by head coach Ed Orgeron, relocated from Baton Rouge to Houston, where practice was held at NRG Stadium ahead of the team’s season opener against UCLA in Los Angeles on Sept. 4, ESPN reported.
Houston Mayor Pro-Tem Dave Martin, who has roots in the Pelican State, welcomed LSU with open arms.
"Glad to have Coach O and the LSU Tigers in Houston for their preparations for their opening game at UCLA,” Martin tweeted. “Geaux Tigers!!!"
ESPN reported that Tulane, which is in New Orleans, had its football team evacuate eastward to Birmingham, Alabama, but Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns stayed put in Lafayette after it was the determined that Ida was going to strike to the east.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to our great fans in the state of Louisiana,” Orgeron tweeted. “Our team is safe in Houston preparing to give our fans a great game. We want [to] thank the City of Houston and the Houston Texans for their hospitality. Geaux Tigers."
Orgeron and the Tigers, winners of the 2019 national championship, have left Houston for L.A. as of this writing.
Labelled as one of the biggest storms to hit Louisiana since 1850 by Gov. John Bel Edwards, Ida made landfall along its southeastern coastline at Category 4 strength around noon on Aug. 29, which was also the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall, CBS News reported.
Ida plunged all of New Orleans into darkness and inundated many residences and businesses in Laplace and Houma with floodwaters.
Its remnants would cause a rare flooding event in the New York City metropolitan area, claiming at least a dozen lives to the single fatality in tallied in Louisiana.