Schapelhouman, the Menlo Park fire division chief, and his men arrived in New Orleans on Aug. 30, only two days after the storm ravaged the city. The small water rescue team was able to navigate the city in inflatable boats and jet skis, plucking people from the water, rooftops, attics and highway overpasses.

A week later, 86 more members of California Task Force Three joined the relief efforts.

The task force is one of 28 Federal Emergency Management Agency teams in the country. Schapelhouman and his group have participated in the relief efforts of every major disaster since 1992, including the Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City.

"New Orleans was nothing like anyone had ever seen," Schapelhouman said. "This was the worst, but we had the greatest successes."

The city, he said, was a disaster. Along with the looting, the water came up to the rooftops of homes, almost flooding signs that pointed to the hurricane evacuation route.

Schapelhouman coordinated the water rescues and strategized the methods needed to extract people from the flood. The team, which could roll up its boats and be transported by helicopter, rescued 499 people from the French Quarter in a single day.

As the team made its way throughout the city, marks of Katrina were everywhere, Schapelhouman said. A coffin washed up from a nearby cemetery onto railroad tracks, 2-inch mold grew on the inside of historic homes, and bodies floated in the water. From a helicopter, Schapelhouman could see the roofs of homes, painted with calls for help and torn apart by people trying to escape their attics.

While Schapelhouman said morale was high among his men, working conditions were extremely difficult. Gulf Coast heat rose to more than 100 degrees. To ease the discomfort, team member chopped off their long sleeve shirts and cut their pants into shorts. Several passed out from heat exhaustion.

At night, the team took refuge in an indoor enclosure at Zephyr Field, a minor league baseball field on the edge of New Orleans, along with 400 other rescue workers. There was no power, running water or working bathrooms. There were only 14 five-gallon buckets of water or showering in the rain to stay clean. Schapelhouman would often end his days at 2 a.m. and begin again at 5:30 a.m.

In between the successes, Schapelhouman said, the mission had its trying moments, particularly when rescuing children who lost their parents.

"There was nothing pleasant about it. You truly see people suffering," he said.

A week after his Sept. 16 return, Schapelhouman sat in Aqui Cal-Mex Grill on Lincoln Ave. and enjoyed a meal with his daughter, Meghan.

"Coming back here is like a slice of heaven," he said.

Schapelhouman joked about the physical condition he returned in--unshaven and smelly. "How did I smell?" he asks his 5-year old daughter.

Meghan responded by holding her nose. Schapelhouman laughed.

"My wife said, 'You've got to take a shower or two. You're going to shave that beard and you're getting a haircut tomorrow,' " he said. "I complied with all of those."

Being away from his Willow Glen home was difficult, he said, but his Katrina work only strengthens his choice of profession.