updated 6:52 p.m. ET Aug. 31, 2008

MIAMI - Nelson Figueroa’s recent itinerary with the New York Mets included a quick trip to New Orleans to retrieve personal possessions before Hurricane Gustav strikes the Gulf Coast.

Figueroa pitched for the New Orleans Zephyrs, the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate, before being called up by New York on Wednesday — about the time it became apparent Gustav was going to strike the region.

Figueroa was with the Zephyrs in Omaha, Neb., when he received the promotion. He joined the Mets in Philadelphia and flew with them to Miami.

They had an off day Thursday, so he booked a flight to New Orleans, where he has an apartment near the airport.

“I figured instead of spending my off day on the beach, I’d go to New Orleans and get my stuff out of there,” he said Sunday. “With the hurricane coming, I wanted to make sure I had something to come back to. It was a hectic 24 hours — packed up everything in my apartment.”

He shipped some things to his offseason home in Chandler, Ariz., and left New Orleans on Friday to rejoin the Mets in Miami.

“The atmosphere was kind of hectic — the airport was pretty packed,” he said. “The lines for people who were just buying tickets that day were pretty long. There were a lot of people taking just one bag and going to family nearby, and hopefully they would come back to something.”

Figueroa said his apartment is near a levee.

“You see that every day and you think, ’What if? What if?”’ he said. “And soon it’s about to be a reality to see if the system is going to hold.”

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