As of this morning, this is the projected track for Hurricane Ike. To help out those of you who don't follow a ton of hurricanes these days, the ever-widening circle represents the ever-increasing uncertainty of where the thing is going to go. The bigger the circle, the more uncertain they are. The different colors represent different projected strengths of the storm.
As the thing travels west across Cuba, it projects to eventually weaken to a tropical storm, some time around Tuesday, then re-strengthen as it travels back across the Gulf, eventually making landfall as a Category 3 on Saturday, somewhere in a very large cone circle centered around the Texas-Louisiana border, but extending east as far as Mobile and west as far as the Texas-Mexico border.
Obviously, as time goes on, the projected paths will become a lot more certain.
Current contingency plans are for the game to be played in Dallas if it cannot be played in Baton Rouge. Backup plans are for the game to be played in New Orleans if it can't be played in Baton Rouge or Dallas.
Everyone is saying Dallas, but the thing appears to be headed closer to Dallas than to Baton Rouge, so I wonder how realistic that is. Dallas is very far inland, and it won't be a hurricane by the time it reaches that city, but if it heads on its current track and goes where that map shows it going, Dallas will be in the Northeast quadrant, where all the tornados are. I think, then, that unless it takes a sudden northern turn it's best to plan to play it either in Baton Rouge or New Orleans. It does not look like either of those cities will be in the direct path of the storm, most especially New Orleans.
Some of the computer models, however, show the storm taking a northerly turn and hitting the Louisiana coast right about where Ike did, which would make Dallas a much more attractive proposition.
Either way, this game needs to be played. There are no alternatives. It should be played even if it needs to be played in an empty stadium somewhere in Canada. The team absolutely needs the work, and needs to play the full complement of 12 games.