Yeah, people need to be super careful when buying a used car in the next few years or so. Flooding will seriously lessen the car's life. Electrical and mechanical problems. Carfax would tell you if the car was ever registered in Louisiana, MS. And just because the title isn't a "salvage" or "rebuilt" title don't mean much. The car may have slipped through the cracks.
How to spot a flood-damaged car (consumer reports)
Here are some quick checks that you can perform yourself:
Look under the carpets to see if they are wet, damp, or muddy. Check the seat-mounting screws to see if there is any evidence that they have been removed. To dry the carpets, the seats must be removed?not generally a part of normal maintenance. Inspect the lights. Lights are expensive to replace, and a water line may still show on the lens or the reflector. Inspect the car in difficult-to-clean places, such as the gaps between panels in the trunk and under the hood. Water-borne mud and debris may still cling in these places. Look for mud or debris on the bottom edges of brackets or panels where it couldn't naturally settle from the air. Look at the heads of any unpainted, exposed screws under the dashboard. Any unpainted metal in cars flooded in New Orleans will probably already show signs of rust. Check the rubber drain plugs under the car and on the bottoms of doors. If they look as if they have been removed recently, it might have been done to drain floodwater. If you need to dig deeper, remove a door panel to see if there is a water mark on the inside of it.