What if Hurricane Ian derails Chiefs-Bucs game in Tampa? Contingency planning underway

What football fan wouldn’t be excited about seeing Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs face off against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers?

That is the matchup for the “Sunday Night Football” game on NBC (KSHB 41), but Ian could be an issue this week.

It’s Hurricane Ian, to be precise. Ian strengthened into a hurricane on Monday, Accuweather reported, and its projected track could take it over Tampa on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

Here is the latest projected path for Ian, from KSHB-TV’s Lindsey Anderson.

An author on JoeBucsFan.com also shared Ian’s track and wrote: “It means the Buccaneers likely will be on the move this week. The NFL does not stop and the Bucs are scheduled to host the Chiefs on Sunday night at The Licht House (Raymond James Stadium). But the game could be relocated or played without fans.

“The storm should be far out of town by then, but hosting a game is more about staffing the stadium and having enough police and emergency personnel available, in addition to critical services like power. The Bucs and the stadium authority may not be able to guarantee what’s necessary for Sunday, so the Bucs and the NFL would opt to move the game in that scenario.”

There is precedent for the NFL changing where or when a game is played because of a storm. Last year the Saints-Packers game was moved from New Orleans to Jacksonville after Hurricane Irma left nearly a million customers in Louisiana without power, as the New York Times noted.

In 2017, the NFL moved the Buccaneers-Dolphins game back 10 weeks as Hurricane Irma was approaching.

Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles was asked about the potential of Ian hitting the Tampa area.

“We’ve talked about it,” Bowles said following Tampa Bay’s loss Sunday to the Packers. “We have a lot of ideas.”

On Monday, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times tweeted this: “The Bucs are working with the NFL to make contingency plans to possibly move Sunday’s game against the Chiefs and/or make arrangements to practice in another city Wednesday and Thursday should Hurricane Ian make landfall near Tampa ...”

State of Emergency

Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Emergency Operations Center, told KSVN-TV that residents on the western coast of Florida should be prepared to find a safe location and stay there.

“You need to be prepared for sheltering in place. You may lose power for multiple days,” Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Emergency Operations Center, told KSVN. “Make sure you have enough food and water that you can prepare while you’re sheltering in place.”

KSVN reported residents of Tampa have already started getting sandbags.

ABC News said the hurricane could strengthen to a category 4 storm.

“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also declared a ‘state of emergency’ for the entire state,” ABC News reported, “with storm conditions ‘projected to constitute a major disaster.’”