Armed with ample warning of the approach of Hurricane Gustav and with lessons learned three years ago from the one-two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, athletics programs carried out emergency plans over the weekend to move student-athletes away from endangered campuses in Louisiana.

After Gustav passed, most campuses appeared set to recover quickly from its effects, as the hurricane’s intensity was less severe than feared. However, two NCAA member institutions in Baton Rouge – LSU and Southern University – still are dealing with the storm’s aftermath in that city as well as substantial damage to LSU athletics facilities

Two of the schools hit hardest by Katrina – Tulane and the University of New Orleans – closed their campuses nearly three full days before Gustav came ashore Monday morning in south central Louisiana, and student-athletes either departed early with their teams for road contests or were transported to safe locations to wait out the storm.

Both of those schools, which were forced to cancel some sports’ schedules or house teams outside of Louisiana after those schools and their athletics facilities sustained crippling damage from Katrina, anticipate resuming classes next Monday.

Meanwhile, student-athletes are preparing for upcoming competition away from New Orleans as the city cleans up storm debris and readies for the return of its population, most of which was evacuated over the weekend.

“We have an annually revised plan that assures the safety of our 280 student-athletes, which is our top priority,” said Rick Dickson, Tulane athletics director. “It gives us the flexibility of determining the manner in which we evacuate.

“We chose the option of sending two of our active teams – football and volleyball – to our competition sites earlier in light of the fact that classes are canceled.”

The Green Wave football team traveled Saturday to Birmingham, Alabama, where it will remain this week to prepare at Samford University for this weekend’s game at Alabama.

“We're happy to try and assist a friend in need during a very difficult time," said Bob Roller, Samford director of athletics. “Many coaches and student-athletes at Samford have lifelong ties with Tulane and the New Orleans area. This will hopefully take one concern off their list.”

 The volleyball team, which flew to Provo, Utah, last Thursday to participate in the BYU Molten Classic, will stay away from New Orleans until after it competes Friday and Saturday in the Paso Robles Marriott Invitational in San Luis Obispo, California.

The volleyball squad originally had been scheduled to return to campus for its home opener Monday, but the school already had canceled that contest against Florida A&M by the time the team departed for Utah.

Tulane’s women’s golf, tennis and cross country teams evacuated to Jackson, Mississippi, where Jackson State again made facilities available for evacuees from the school as it did three years ago.

“Our student-athletes are making the most of this experience, and I believe this will be a great bonding opportunity for such a young group,” golf coach John Thomas Horton said Sunday

UNO coaches ‘prepared’

UNO’s volleyball team remained in Alabama after competing in the Auburn War Eagle Invitational, and will stay there until it is safe to return to New Orleans. The Privateer tennis, swimming and diving, and golf teams evacuated to prearranged sites in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, respectively, while student-athletes on other teams who do not have families in the region impacted by the storm evacuated with families of local student-athletes.

“All of our coaches and staff members were prepared for such an event, and I am extremely grateful to all of them,” said Jim Miller, UNO athletics director.

UNO also expects to resume classes on Monday, although law enforcement officials prevented New Orleans residents from re-entering the city yesterday as cleanup operations continued and crews worked on widespread power outages.

Other schools in Gustav’s projected path postponed home contests and cancelled trips, to permit student-athletes, coaches and administrators to stay with families or evacuate to pre-arranged locations.

Outside of New Orleans, Nicholls State in Thibodeux also plans to resume classes on Monday. The school transported resident students, faculty and staff to Ruston, Louisiana, as Gustav approached, and the Nicholls State football team postponed tomorrow night’s scheduled game at New Mexico State.

However, many campuses in the state may be able to return to normal operations much more quickly, with Louisiana-Lafayette, McNeese State in Lake Charles, Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, Louisiana Tech in Ruston, Northwestern State in Natchitoches and Louisiana-Monroe all expecting to resume classes tomorrow.

Members of McNeese State’s soccer, tennis, volleyball and cross country teams traveled cross-state to Northwestern State to wait out the storm and the women’s basketball team traveled to Shreveport, while football team members were dismissed Sunday to join their families. The school cancelled a cross country meet scheduled for today, but the Cowboy football team will play Delta State Saturday night in Lake Charles. The soccer and volleyball teams are scheduled to play matches this weekend at Louisiana-Monroe, and the golf team, which gathered in Houston, is returning home for competition Sunday and Monday.

Southeastern Louisiana’s football team traveled Sunday to Oxford, Mississippi, where it accepted an invitation from Ole Miss to use practice fields and its weight room in preparing for its game this weekend at Mississippi State.

A volleyball match between Louisiana Tech and Northwestern State scheduled for last night was postponed and the Louisiana Tech soccer team also scrapped plans for a trip to Delta State in anticipation of lingering bad weather, including a potential for severe flooding across Louisiana and into northeast Texas.

Louisiana College, a Division III member in Pineville, also has cancelled classes through today, but its fall sports teams are slated to travel to areas outside of storm-stricken areas for competition this weekend.

Football game in doubt

LSU campus buildings sustained widespread water and roof damage and lost electricity as Gustav veered slightly northeast after landfall Monday and its eye wall clipped Baton Rouge.

In a statement released last night, LSU officials revealed that several athletics venues suffered significant storm damage and that no decision has been made whether to proceed with Saturday night’s home football game against Troy.

Tiger Stadium remained without power and also sustained significant glass damage, as well as the loss of awnings over Stadium Club seating. A fence around the field and the stadium’s north scoreboard also were damaged, and there is a “considerable amount of debris” in the stands and on the playing field.

Several other venues also were damaged, notably the LSU Soccer Complex, which lost its press box and also suffered damage to fencing and a scoreboard.

The Tiger women’s soccer team played Monday in Chicago against Loyola (Illinois), then remained in that city. “We’re all looking forward to getting back home and spending time with our families,” said head soccer coach Brian Lee following LSU’s win.

LSU’s student newspaper, The Daily Reveille, reported that the Tiger women’s volleyball team is staying in an assistant coach’s father’s home near Memphis, where it flew after competing over the weekend in a tournament in Omaha. Its matches this weekend in the Maravich Center – which is being used as a base for storm-response operations as it was in 2005 –  have been cancelled.

The Tiger women’s basketball team, which has just completed an exhibition tour in Canada, is in Houston, and coach Van Chancellor told the newspaper the team would stay there until power is restored in Baton Rouge.

In anticipation of the storm, LSU moved up the start time of its football home opener last Saturday against Appalachian State to 10 a.m., then asked student-athletes, coaches and administrators to take shelter in residence halls or with families.

Southern University reported power outages in some areas of its campus, but said students in residence halls were safe during the storm.

“A few windows were broken in classroom buildings,” Chancellor Kofi Lomotey reported in an online letter to the university community. “Some power lines are down and there was some roof damage. Thankfully, no injuries have been reported.”

Southern’s football team returned home from a game last Saturday at Houston and planned to travel Thursday to its next contest at Tennessee State.

Like LSU, other NCAA member schools made athletics facilities available as shelters, including Louisiana-Monroe’s Fant-Ewing Coliseum and East Texas Baptist’s Keys Gymnasium.

While the Gulf Coast lets out what amounts to a sign of relief after getting through Gustav, the East Coast now is casting a wary eye toward Tropical Storm Hannah, which diminished from a Category 1 hurricane as it neared the Bahamas but could build again in strength as projections show it turning northward and approaching the Florida coast on Friday. Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina also could be affected by the storm by Saturday.

Forecasters also are tracking Tropical Storms Ike and Josephine in the Atlantic.