NEW ORLEANS -- If the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina wasn't enough to remind Saints offensive lineman Jammal Brown what he went through when New Orleans flooded, the latest storm to threaten the Gulf Coast certainly did.
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As much as any Saints player, Brown could relate to the anxiety Tropical Storm Gustav was causing in south Louisiana. A first-round draft choice in 2005, Brown bought his first house in an upscale golf course development in eastern New Orleans only months before Katrina hit.
"Last time, (team officials) called me up and said, 'We're going out to Oakland for a week. Pack up a week's worth of clothes,"' Brown recalled. "So I pack up some clothes and get out to Oakland and look on TV and every thing I own is under water."
Katrina stuck Aug. 29, 2005, smashing levees and flooding 80 percent of New Orleans.
The Saints played the Miami Dolphins in their final preseason game Thursday night at the Louisiana Superdome, losing 14-10.
The Saints are scheduled to open the regular season in the Superdome against Tampa Bay on Sept. 7. The storm is expected to strike the Gulf Coast - anywhere from Texas to the Florida panhandle -- around Tuesday morning. Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said the team would practice next week in Indianapolis if Gustav became a certain threat to the New Orleans area.
"We've all had time to put together a clear plan as to how it affects the organization, the team, the families of the team," third-year head coach Sean Payton said. "I don't want to go into detail as to what we do, because what we do is really predicated on when it's supposed to arrive."
"We will be focused and ready to play the Buccaneers," Payton said. "We're planning on that game being at the Superdome, but the powers that be will have a clear plan in place if that should change any or if our preparation should have to be somewhere else. It won't be a distraction; we won't allow it to be."
The Saints have played two full seasons before sellout crowds in New Orleans since ignoring the naysayers who predicted pro football had no future in the Big Easy after Katrina. Even faced with the potential of another hurricane-related disruption, players said they cherished the opportunity to play in a place that really needed them, both in terms of the morale boost they provided and the community service projects they undertook.
Cornerback Jason Craft, who's been with the Saints since 2004, said a lot of players initially did not want to return to New Orleans after their displacement to San Antonio because they didn't really understand what life in post-Katrina New Orleans would be like. As they began to appreciate the extent to which they could inspire hope, they embraced the move and were rewarded with a once-in-a-career experience during a 2006 home-opening victory over Atlanta in an emotional Monday night game.
"That first game, that right there, I'll never forget that," Craft said. "Even though we didn't make it to the Super Bowl that year, that was my Super Bowl. I never seen anything like that and I was just happy to see people out in the streets, just happy to see the Saints play that day. That's probably one thing I'll always remember about New Orleans is that day."
Drew Brees was the first major free agent to come to New Orleans after the storm and bought an old home in a historic neighborhood only six blocks from areas that flooded during Katrina.
Brees, whose foundation has raised nearly $2 million for projects aimed at helping children around the city by rebuilding schools, playgrounds, athletic fields and the like, said witnessing the city's recovery has been both inspiring and disappointing, often depending on the neighborhood in question.
WHO DAT In 2007 
