Chevy Corvettes Eaten By The Earth

Giant Sinkhole Swallows Corvettes At Kentucky Museum

BOWLING GREEN, KY. -- The National Corvette Museum reports a sinkhole opened up under the Museum's Skydome, letting numerous Corvettes on display fall about twenty-five feet into the hole.

Museum officials say they received an early morning call from it's security company alerting of motion detectors going off in the Skydome 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. The Fire Department has estimated the size of the hole is 40 feet across and 25 to 30 feet deep. No word on whether insurance will cover the damage to the vehicles caused by a sinkhole as many policies exclude sinkhole damage.

Western Kentucky like many area of Central Florida are underlain by limestone rock, and susceptible to earth collapses.

Eight Corvettes on display at the museum were affected by this incident. Those cars include a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder on loan from General Motors and a 2009 ZR1 “Blue Devil” also 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. The Skydome exhibit area of the Museum is a separate structure connected to the main Museum. A structural engineer is now on-site to assess the existing damage and stability of the surrounding areas. The Museum is closed to the public for the day to allow officials to assess the situation.

(Videos courtesy National Corvette Museum, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Western Kentucky University's Engineering Department used it's drone helicopter fitted with a camera to take the videos.)