With Hurricane Isaac barreling toward a direct hit on the Gulf Coast, the New Orleans Saints will fly to Cincinnati this morning and hold an afternoon practice at Paul Brown Stadium.

“They’re concerned No. 1 about the storm coming and then not being able to get to Nashville,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said, referring to the Saints’ game Thursday night against the Tennessee Titans. “They didn’t have a hotel situation where they could get down to Nashville, so they decided to come here.”

The Saints, of course, have had to deal with storms in the past after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the region in 2005.

The team also has experience practicing in Cincinnati. In 2007, Sean Payton brought the Saints to town for a couple of joint practices ahead of a preseason game against the Bengals at PBS.

Lewis said he had hoped to do the same today as a way to give his starters, who aren’t expected to play more than a series or two Thursday in Indianapolis, some spirited work. But the short notice made the logisitcs too difficult to work out.

“There’s some positives to that because any time you work against somebody with a different colored helmet, the intensity level kicks up,” Lewis said. “Whether it’s a thud type practice or a scrimmage type of situation, it’s good work for you.”

The Bengals will practice at their originally scheduled time of 11 a.m., and should be out of the stadium by 2 p.m.

New Orleans, which gave its players the day off Monday to evacuate their families, will practice later in the afternoon or evening in what will be a homecoming of sorts for a number of Saints coaches who have ties to Miami University.

Payton, a RedHawks assistant from 1994-95, will not be making the trip because he is serving a one-year suspension in wake of the bounty investigation. But five others will be in town.

Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer, who will be the acting head coach for the first six games of the season while Joe Vitt serves his bounty suspension, is a Miami grad who played from 1986-89 and coached at the school from 1990-98.

Strength and conditioning coach Dan Dalrymple is a Miami grad who played there from 1983-86 and coached in Oxford from 1987-2005; assistant strength and conditioning coach Charles Byrd is an Oxford native who was Dalrymple’s assistant from 2006-07; running backs coach Bret Ingalls coached RedHawks tight ends and tackles in 2005; and assistant special teams coach Mike Mallory is the son of Bill Mallory, who coached at Miami from 1969-73.

Saints quarterback coach Joe Lombardi also has ties to the area after getting his start in the profession as defensive line coach at the University of Dayton from 1996-98.