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Packers at Saints in Week 1 could be moved: Here's the latest after Saints are forced to evacuate New Orleans

The NFL is closely monitoring the situation in New Orleans due to Hurricane Ida

By John Breech
1 hr ago
2 min read

With Hurricane Ida bearing down on New Orleans over the weekend, the Saints decided to evacuate the city Saturday and head to Dallas, where they'll be practicing until at least Wednesday. Beyond that, though, things are still up in the air.

When Ida came ashore Sunday, it knocked out power in the entire city of New Orleans and right now, it's unclear if the Saints will be able to host their regular-season opener against the Packers, which is just 13 days away.

Although the opener will definitely get played, Saints coach Sean Payton admitted Monday that he has no idea if the game will actually take place in New Orleans.

"We haven't heard anything relative to the opener," Payton said, via The Times-Picayune/NOLA.com. "Obviously, we'll have a Plan B. A lot of things from a priority standpoint are more important for our city. We fully anticipate starting the season with Green Bay and the question is where will it be at."

"I honestly think in the next three days that we'll know what our next step is," Payton said, via The Times-Picayune/NOLA.com. "We're pretty sure it's not going to be returning to Metairie anytime soon to start practices. I think that's unrealistic."

Metairie, Louisiana, is where the Saints practice facility is, and if Payton doesn't envision his team returning there in the near future, that means they're going to need to find somewhere else to practice. However, that's not what Payton is thinking about right now.

"It's prayers and safety," Payton said. "It's all the things that we want for our neighbors, our residents."

As for the game against the Packers, if it does get moved, it wouldn't be the first time the Saints have had to relocate. After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the Saints were forced to leave New Orleans for the entire year and played their home games in Baton Rouge and San Antonio.

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