Don't buy a used car from Louisiana...

[Preacherman]

There's an excellent news blog, www.thedeadpelican.com , modeled after the Drudge Report, that covers Louisiana politics, news, etc.  The owner recently did a helicopter tour of New Orleans with his brother, three months after the hurricane, and his brother has posted a series of photographs that are pretty disturbing.  It looks like the devastation hasn't even been touched in many areas, and officials are saying that it'll be more than a year yet until all the garbage has been collected.

Here are a few selected pictures from his brother's Web site.

This is a dumping ground (one of many) for the hundreds of thousands of vehicles damaged by the flood:





Here's a closer look at some of the vehicles:





Here are a few of the tens of thousands of abandoned refrigerators, filled with toxic waste:





I highly recommend visiting http://nomoon.org/no/ and viewing the rest of the pictures.  It's a sad sight.

[The Rabbi]

Didnt the valiant governor of LA sign legislation banning sale of cars from LA with water damage?
What a crock.  My opinion is that as long as the facts are disclosed people should be able to do what they want with their vehicles.

[charby]

Be a good Carfax commerical

[mtnbkr]

My opinion is that as long as the facts are disclosed people should be able to do what they want with their vehicles

Yup.  Besides, some of the SUVs might make dandy dedicated hunting/camping/farm vehicles if the price were right.  Assuming no unpleasant odors, the cars could be good 2nd or 3rd cars for town use or for use when a primary vehicle needs work.  Etc, etc.  

Of course, the prices would have to be quite low for this to be acceptable.

Chris

[Larry Ashcraft]

There is an article in the January 2006 Car & Driver on this subject.  They said there are between 500,000 and 600,000 vehicles involved.  The police have rounded up as many as possible to record VIN nos and put them in a database and also to try and find the owners.

Webpage here: http://www.caranddriver.com - but they still have the December issue up.

Also, Carfax is making all its flood information available to consumers and dealers free of charge at www.carfax.com/flood

[Lennyjoe]

I had a dealer tell me here that the car auctions here are crazy.  Alot of companies buying the cars up as fast as they come in to take to the NO area.

[Jamisjockey]

Makes me want to rent a flatbed truck and go down to that lot picking through for Vipers and Ferraris. :>

I could really use a F150 ext. cab 4x4

[pauli]

there's a reason the guys from car talk say never buy a flooded car...

Makes me want to rent a flatbed truck and go down to that lot picking through for Vipers and Ferraris. :>

something tells me the upstanding people from nopd and the mayor's office already beat you to it.

[mtnbkr]

there's a reason the guys from car talk say never buy a flooded car...

Good advice for the majority of people, but for those who can turn a wrench or don't need that car as reliable transportation, a discounted "flood" car could be useful...assuming a good discount.

Chris