Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans Hornets Suns on December 21, 2005, and they played the first professional sports event in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina on March 8, 2006, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Hornets completed the 2005–06 season by winning 38 games, tenth in the Western Conference. They became the first team since the 1974–75 Boston Celtics to play home games at four separate venues: the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, and the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma. The Hornets had finished last in attendance
Hurricane preparedness for New Orleans Hurricane Ivan's threat to the city resulted in the largest evacuation of the city to date. Mayor Ray Nagin issued a call for a voluntary evacuation of the city at 6 pm on September 13. An estimated 600,000 or more evacuated from Greater New Orleans. The contraflow plan was put into full effect for the first time, but rather late in the evacuation due to various confusions. This proved valuable practice, for the contraflow was implemented much more smoothly in 2005. Hurricane Pam was a hypothetical hurricane used as a disaster scenario to drive planning for a 13-parish area in