Sinkhole swallows cars at the Corvette Museum!

[The Boss]

From U.S.A. Today


BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — A sinkhole formed Wednesday under the National Corvette Museum here, swallowing eight cars, according to its executive director.

Some time before 5:30 a.m. CT, the sinkhole started to form, authorities believe. By 5:39 a.m. power in the museum went off and police were called, Executive Director Wendell Strode said. The incident originally was thought to be a fire.

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When emergency personnel got to the museum, they discovered a sinkhole 40 feet wide and 25 to 30 feet deep, Strode said.

"It's pretty significant," he said.

Bowling Green — about 60 miles northeast of Nashville, Tenn., and 100 miles southwest of Louisville, Ky. — is at the edge of a karst region where caves, springs and sinkholes are common. The main entrance to Mammoth Cave National Park is about 30 miles northeast of the city, but that cave system has more than 400 miles that have been explored.

The National Corvette Museum will celebrate its 20th anniversary in August. Of the eight cars that fell into the hole,the museum owned five and General Motors owned three. GM's Corvette plant where present-day Corvettes are manufactured is across a highway less than a half mile from the museum.

Employees at the museum still are working on a list of cars involved in the incident, which occurred inside the facility's iconic spire called the Sky Dome, Strode said.

Emergency personnel allowed museum staff to remove only one car in the Sky Dome, the only surviving 1983 Corvette, he said. It had not fallen in the hole.

Engineers have been called in to assess the situation.

"Before we do anything, like remove the other cars, we want that assessment so we know if there's been any structural damage to the Sky Dome," Strode said.

The museum is open Wednesday but the Sky Dome will be off limits, he said.

"We'll try to get back to business as usual as soon as we can and keep moving forward," he said.

A monetary estimate of damage done to the museum and the vehicles involved had not been determined early Wednesday.

[The Boss]

Sorry - duplicate post, feel free to delete!

[x77-69z28]

Just saw it on Fox News! I hope no one here had a car on loan to them!

[bbbentley]

Copied from CRG site:from one of the NCM employees:

"The following is what I know about cars involved:
We received a call at 5:44am from our security company alerting us of our motion detectors going off in our Sk...ydome area of the Museum. Upon arrival it was discovered that a sinkhole had collapsed within the Museum. No one was in or around the Museum at the time. The Bowling Green Fire Department arrived on the scene and secured the area.
It is with heavy hearts that we report that eight Corvettes were affected by this incident. Those cars include:
• 1993 ZR-1 Spyder on loan from General Motors • 2009 ZR1 “Blue Devil” on loan from General Motors The other six vehicles were owned by the National Corvette Museum including:
• 1962 Black Corvette
• 1984 PPG Pace Car
• 1992 White 1 Millionth Corvette
• 1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Corvette
• 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette
• 2009 White 1.5 Millionth Corvette
None of the cars affected were on loan from individuals. We have contacted a structural engineer who is arriving today to assess the existing damage and stability of the surrounding areas. While the Skydome area is closed, the remainder of the Museum is still open"

This list includes mostly 'one of one' Corvettes.. including the 'One Millionth Corvette' built, a white / red '92 Corvette that I saw being built back in '92, which was celebrated with a huge 'to-do' at the NCM and plant...
PS. Just remembered that the current NCM wasn't opened until 1994; the 'ncm' in 1992 was at a small location in a local BG shopping center.. Smiley

[Bill Pritchard]

Ouch [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/frown.gif[/img]

[70 copo]

Security Camera video posted here... the 84 pace car is gone for sure.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/02/12/n...amera-footage/

[Tracker1]

This. Is. Horrible.

[69LM1]

Wow...

[Vern B]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014...d-into-sinkhole

Check out the third one inside the pit.

[69LM1]

This comment was funny:

&quot;Corvettes are a big money pit. Check.&quot;

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

Rich