Not too long ago, while safe at home, the staff of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky got a call from their security firm that motion detectors were going off in their “Skydome,” the large, open facility they use for displaying many of their classic cars. Arriving at the Skydome to see what the problem was, they discovered that a sinkhole 40 feet wide and 40 feet deep had opened up in the middle of the floor. Eight cars had fallen in.
As you can see the damage is quite extensive, to say the least. Eight cars total were destroyed by the sink hole.
The oldest car that was destroyed was a 1962 black Corvette, ut it was the easiest one to reach and extract.
It was thought that the total damage caused was an estimated $1 million.
What happened was all caught on film, which is good because it almost sounds unbelievable. You can see the floor start to sag, then the floor starts to disappear as cars follow.
They said that, “Every car has a story behind it. There’s been tears shed back there this morning.”
They believe the sinkhole was slowly developing for years, but then it was just too much which led to the collapse. It’s believed that this sinkhole is among the largest 5% seen in the US.
One man named Gary Dempze was actually scheduled to arrive at the museum that day to pick up the black 2014 Stingray he had won in a raffle for $100. Dempze said, “I got up, saw the news and was totally shocked to hear about it. I love the museum and the uniqueness of the Corvette. I’m looking forward to coming back to the museum this year and going through it and seeing how they’ve straightened out.”
And here’s the shocking video:
Obviously, they’re still assessing damages. ”This is going to be an interesting situation,” Museum Executive Director Wendell Strode told the Bowling Green Daily News. Despite the odd catastrophe, the museum (other than the Skydome) will be open during normal business hours tomorrow. What a heartbreaking thing to wake up to. I’m sure every car lover out there understood the pain.