CANTON – A Maine native who resided in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath said his time in Vietnam as a Marine was nothing compared to what he saw after the hurricane.

Richard McCollister, 53, now is staying in a friend’s trailer after making his way to Maine last week.

“Going to Vietnam was like going to church compared to this,” said McCollister. “I saw another war zone there. There were dead, bloated bodies floating everywhere. I saw sheriffs down there looting. A lot of people were shooting each other. There are no pictures to even explain what it was like.”

A native of Hartford, McCollister said he left Maine 12 years ago in search of a better-paying job, which he found as a pipe welder at Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans. Since 1997, he worked building race cars and managing St. Tammany’s racetrack, which was obliterated by Katrina.

He lived in an apartment on South Gayoso Street, a block from Canal Street, when martial law was declared Aug. 27 as Hurricane Katrina’s 165 mph winds began taking aim on the city. That was when the looting and shooting began, he said.

McCollister, who went to Vietnam in 1972 and 1973, left his home and moved in with three Vietnam veteran friends on higher ground. When the hurricane hit, a 20-foot storm surge caused widespread flooding and chaos.

Water flooded to within three blocks of where he was staying. When he returned to his apartment by boat, he found it under 17 feet of water. Soon after, he volunteered to help rescue people stranded on rooftops, traveling around the city in a flat-bottomed boat.

“I rode in the front of the boat, and I had to push dead bodies out of the way so they wouldn’t foul up the propeller,” McCollister said.

A few days later, he decided he had to get out because of all the shootings.

“It started a block down from the police station near us. The police, they got all them guns and flak jackets, and they bailed. They left. So I bailed,” McCollister said.

He stole a bicycle and pedaled 17 miles before catching a ride to the Baton Rouge, La., airport. His sister Diane Wood of Livermore bought him a plane ticket, and he arrived in Maine on Sept. 7.

A childhood friend found him a trailer to live in and gave him an old pickup truck. There’s a for-sale sign in front of the trailer, but he’s welcome to stay there until it sells.

For now, he’s trying to put his life back together. All he has is a teapot, a microwave oven, some clothes and sparse furniture.

“Any donation would be greatly appreciated. I don’t care what it is. Even a can of soup will be a help,” he said.

And he has decided he wants to stay in Maine.

“Somebody asked me if I was going back. To what? New Orleans? There is no New Orleans. It’s history,” McCollister said.