[Clarkster]

I thought this was a joke when my friend first posted this on my FB timeline....apparently not! WOW!!!

Sinkhole Opens Under Corvette Museum, Swallows Cars | LEX18.com

Now it's changed to EIGHT cars:
Museum officials say the sink hole destroyed eight Corvettes.

· 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

 

[Lipstic]

This is horrible...just horrible...not only for the loss of the cars...but for the corvette world in general.

 

[ALF01]

Holy #[email protected]*&

Was there a bit over a month ago, just checked and webcam for the Skydome is down.....glad nobody hurt, but sad, very sad.

 

[Redc7]

That sucks big time, with the C5 bash just around the corner as well.

 

[Clarkster]

Just got an email response from Lori at the NCM:

Good Morning Clark.
Everyone is fine.

It’s just so sad.

Thank you for your concern.

Lori Bieschke
National Corvette Museum
Delivery Program Manager
Phone: 1-800-205-4248 or
270-467-8851
Email: [email protected]


According to the new article, just the Skydome is closed...the rest of the museum is operational. Terrible, terrible news, regardless!

 

[mjw930]

BREAKING: 8 Vehicles Swallowed by Sinkhole at National Corvette Museum

 

[Lipstic]

UPDATE"
http://www.wbko.com/news/headlines/B...245173671.html

UPDATED 9:00 AM -- Confirmed list of Corvettes that have fallen into the sinkhole. This list is from the Corvette Museum.

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

Bowling Green city spokeswoman Kim Lancaster says the hole opened up at about 5:40 AM, setting off an alarm and a call to the fire department.

The Sky Dome area is an original part of the facility for which construction began in 1992 and was completed in 1994.

Lancaster says information is still being gathered about what exactly happened, but this appears to be the first incident of its kind at the property.

No injuries have been reported.

UPDATED 7:40 AM -- It has been confirmed that 8 vehicles were swallowed by a sinkhole at the Sky Dome at the National Corvette Museum. The sinkhole is estimated to be around 40 feet wide and 20-30 feet deep.

The Museum is open for the day, although the Sky Dome area will remain closed. No one is being allowed into the Sky Dome area, including employees, until the integrity of the structure is investigated further.

A structural engineer will be advising the Museum on how to proceed.

 

[Lipstic]

 

[Clarkster]

 

[Steveinaz]

Sinkhole swallows 8 vehicles at National Corvette Museum - WKRN, Nashville News, Nashville Weather and Sports

This link also shows a picture of the hole with some of the cars visible!

 

[Clarkster]

Some video.... BREAKING: 8 Vehicles Swallowed by Sinkhole at National Corvette Museum

 

[Sinner]

Wow, very odd and sad.

 

[ALF01]

Latest says the museum now closed today for damage assessment....per Museum's Facebook page

 

[Chip]

Wow! Too bad this had to happen. It's even worse for one of our members who is planning to store her new C7 at the museum while she is deployed.

 

[mjw930]

Latest says the museum now closed today for damage assessment....per Museum's Facebook page

While it's odd, they actually appear to be open. Many webcams showing people. I'm surprised the fire department is allowing it but they did say the skydome is a separate building.

 

[mjw930]

Wow! Too bad this had to happen. It's even worse for one of our members who is planning to store her new C7 at the museum while she is deployed.

She may be having second thoughts but that is what insurance is for.

 

[smokey12]

This is very sad for the Museum and all Corvette enthusiasts to lose these vehicles. The silver lining would be that it happened when the museum was closed and no one was hurt. Imagine if it had happened when a big event like the caravan was being held at the museum. Hopefully some of these cars may be salvageable.

 

[C7]

Holy cows, I don't know what else to say. That's terrible. At least no one was hurt.

 

[Lipstic]

Sinkhole Collapses in Skydome

We received a call at 5:44am from our security company alerting us of our motion detectors going off in our 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 25-30 feet deep.

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. 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 us to carefully assess the situation. We will keep everyone informed as we know more.

With the 20th Anniversary celebration, Grand Opening of the NCM Motorsports Park, and the National Corvette Caravan coming August 27-30, we’ve got a lot to be excited about in 2014, and look forward to getting the Skydome repaired and reopened very soon.

Thanks to all of our Corvette friends and family for you words of prayer and support.



Sent from my iPhone using Corvette Stingray Forum

 

[TorqueNews]

UPDATE: The Museum is Closed Contrary to Previous Reports

​

There is a new update folks. The entire National Corvette Museum is closed during the inspection process, contrary to earlier reports. - Patrick Rall reports from TorqueNews.com.

Sinkhole Under the National Corvette Museum Swallows 8 Super Rare Chevrolet Corvettes (Update) - Torque News

Details are limited right now as officials from the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky continue to sort through the damage, but what we know right now is that at 5:44am this morning, the security system was triggered in the Skydome portion of the Corvette Museum. When security personnel arrived, they found that the floor of the Skydome had given way to what must be a massive sinkhole and 8 historic Corvettes had literally been sucked into the Earth. The good news (if there is good news here) is that none of those 8 Corvettes were on loan from private owners, but the bad news is that 8 rare Corvettes are buried in the rubble. It is unclear whether these Corvettes can be recovered and if they can – it is hard to say whether they can be repaired.

Sinkholes can range from a few feet to hundreds of feet so there is a chance that these 8 rare Corvettes have simply fallen a short distance through the floor, but there is also a chance that they have plunged hundreds of feet down with the debris from the building itself. News reports from the area refer to the 8 Corvettes as being gone while the National Corvette Museum simply refers to those cars as being “affected” by the sinkhole. With any luck, the damage isn’t as bad as it sounds with the cars being damaged and not being buried deep below the museum.

There were two Chevrolet Corvette models claimed by the sinkhole that were on loan from General Motors. This included the 1993 Corvette ZR-1 Spyder Concept and the 2009 Corvette ZR-1 Blue Devil Concept – both of which cannot be replaced by another car. I mean, there is a chance that GM has another example of each of those two unique concepts, but I am guessing that is not the case.

The other six cars swallowed up by the sinkhole were owned by the National Corvette Museum. This list included a 1962 Corvette, a 1984 PPG Pace Car Edition, a 1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Edition and a 2001 Mallett Hammer Edition Corvette Z06 – all of which will be hard for the museum to replace. Worst of all, the final two cars stolen by the sinkhole were the 1 millionth Corvette built (a 1992 model) and the 1.5 millionth Corvette built (2009 model). The museum may be able to replace the first four cars mentioned above, but there will never been another 1 millionth Corvette built so we can only hope that the 1992 and 2009 model year Corvettes that were such significant unit numbers can be recovered and repaired.

Update: The National Corvette Museum has issued a pair of images showing the huge hole in the floor of the Skydome. We can see in the image that the 1962 Corvette is perched on end and we can see the wheel of what looks to be a C5 - presumably the Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Edition Corvette. You can see that the hole is incredibly large and fairly deep but the cars should be recoverable. Whether they can be repaired is questionable but the image above shows the sheer scope of the damage to the facility and just how big of a hole was hiding under the museum.

Even if you are not a Chevrolet or Corvette fan/enthusiast – the news of the floor collapse at the National Corvette Museum should come as a painful piece of news to everyone in the automotive industry. Whether you like the Corvette or not, the cars that have been damaged or lost played a major part in the history of high performance vehicles in America and around the world and for the time being, it appears that those 8 Corvettes are gone. Fortunately, this happened in the wee hours of the morning so there were no employees or visitors in the museum when the floor gave way and that means that no one was injured as a result of the sinkhole damage.

The National Corvette Museum will remain open while structural engineers inspect the area around the Skydome. The Skydome portion is obviously closed until further notice.

The entire National Corvette Museum is closed during the inspection process, contrary to earlier reports.