CARY, N.C. -

The National Weather Service Office in New Orleans reported that more than 10 of its recording stations in southern Louisiana counted at least 10 inches of rain during a 48-hour span this past weekend, with one area approaching 22 inches. The torrential downpours happened not far from where Hurricane Katrina deluged the Gulf Coast 11 years ago this month.

With a total of 20 parishes having been declared major disasters by federal officials, hundreds of vehicles likely are impacted by floodwaters. But whether it’s this latest natural disaster in the Bayou or what might be approaching your dealership, National Auto Auction Association president Mike Browning pointed out the protocol and technology now in place to keep flood-damaged units from being “washed” and landing in your inventory.

“In the wake of disasters like Hurricane Katrina and more recently Hurricane Sandy, salvage laws have been put into effect to give consumers a way to know whether or not a vehicle has suffered flood damage at some point in its history,” said Browning, who also is the general manager of Manheim San Antonio.

“Additionally, NAAA has adopted policies requiring that titles are correctly branded to indicate a vehicle’s flood history,” Browning continued when reached through Manheim’s public relations department this week.

“But I’d say the biggest hurdle we’ve worked hard to overcome as an industry is properly training inspectors to identify flood damage,” he went on to say. “In short, the training simply wasn’t nearly as comprehensive back then. Now inspectors have a greater understanding of what the indicators of flood damage are, and frankly it’s relatively unheard of for them to miss it.”

That emphasis by Browning should be a welcomed sentiment to veteran used-car managers who might have had to navigate the challenges left behind by disasters such as Katrina and storms going back much further. Perhaps now, the only thing “washed” in the lanes is a vehicle that might have seen a detail shop before going over the block.

“Vehicle history reports from reliable services like AutoCheck has made the practice of title washing much more difficult and enables auctions to disclose any branded title before the bidding starts,” Browning said.

“By offering increased visibility to accurate vehicle data, a dealer’s risk of buying a vehicle with undetected problems is greatly reduced,” he went on to say.

Browning, along with other NAAA leaders as well as executives from Manheim and other wholesale players, will be converging at Used Car Week, which is set for Nov. 14-18 at the Red Rock Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. For more details about all of the NAAA and Used Car Week events in store, go to www.usedcarweek.biz.