From Hurricane Katrina to Bolivia? The Journey of a Flooded Car
One man was saddened to learn his dream car had been flooded during Katrina.
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia, Sept. 10, 2008— -- Servicios Joe, or Joe's Garage, is much like any neighborhood garage, with cars propped up on blocks and half-repaired engines waiting to be reassembled. But amid the vintage cars, including a 952 Opel, is one car that seems particularly out of place in this remote South American city: a chili-red Mini Cooper.
Mini Cooper's are complicated little cars, filled with expensive computers and advanced electronics, which is one reason they are not sold in Bolivia, the poorest nation in South America.
Upon a closer look at the license plate on the Mini, it's clear that the scarlet-colored car has its own scarlet past: "Brian Harris Mini," it reads, "Baton Rouge." The question: How does a Mini Cooper sold in Baton Rouge travel nearly 3,500 miles to Bolivia? And, more importantly, why is it being repaired?
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Oscar Vargas, the Bolivian owner of the 2004 Mini Cooper, still has the headlight that was on the car when he initially purchased it last year. It has clear signs of water damage -- saltwater damage.
On how a car in land-locked Bolivia gets sodden in saltwater, Vargas said, "The waters of Katrina." Hurricane Katrina.
To solve the mystery, ABC News, with some helpful guidance from The Associated Press, traveled to New Orleans and back in time three years to recall the story of so-called "Katrina cars." There were an estimated half a million cars destroyed by Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters.
One of them was a chili-red Mini Cooper owned by Colleen McGaw. It was a graduation present for the young Tulane University law student, who had the car for about a year before Katrina hit.
Damaged Vehicles Make Surprise Appearances
"We left it right here in the carport, thinking that it was going to flood ... a couple of feet above the ground [and that] would be sufficient, if it flooded at all," she recalled as she walked around the garden of the rebuilt family home in the New Orleans Lakeview district.
But McGaw -- and so many others -- underestimated the storm. The water would rise up about 8 feet.
Photos her dad took after the waters of Katrina finally receded show the extensive damage done to the vehicle. The insurance company came to tow her beloved Mini Cooper away. McGaw thought it would be scrapped. Instead, it ended up in a dealership in Kansas City.
Sight unseen, Vargas bought the car over the Internet through a dealer in Bolivia for $7,000. He then spent $5,000 shipping the car of his dreams to Los Angeles, down the Pacific Coast to Chile, and over the Andes Mountains to Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Vargas said he had no idea that he was buying a car that had spent several weeks stewing in saltwater. ABC News learned that many Katrina cars ended up here in Bolivia and in other Latin American countries that are too poor to monitor car imports.
'I Feel Ripped Off'
At Servicios Joe, the garage in Cochabamba, mechanic Carlos Aliaga told us he'd had the car for a year and a half. Although he had never seen a Mini before, he has figured out how to replace the entire electrical system and many of the components with parts from a second damaged Mini that Vargas had to buy.
Back in New Orleans, McGaw moved on with her life. With her insurance money she bought another chili-red Mini Cooper; exactly like the one she lost.
She was shocked to learn that the original chili-red Mini Cooper ended up in Bolivia.
"I was very surprised," she said. "I just never thought it could have been salvageable at all. A car that sat two weeks at least in floodwater, I would not have thought that anything could have come of it."
Vargas, the new owner, said he has sunk more than $30,000 into his water-logged car; buying, shipping and trying to restore it.
"I feel ripped off," Vargas said, adding that he should have listened to his wife. She wanted an SUV.
Update: Since Jeffrey Kofman returned from Bolivia, Aliaga the mechanic finished repairing Vargas' chili-red Mini Cooper and Vargas is driving it on the streets of Cochabamba. It is almost certainly the only chili-ed Mini Cooper on the streets of Cochabamba, Bolivia.