Sinkhole strikes Corvette museum

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

Sometime before 5:30 a.m. CT, the sinkhole started to form, authorities believe. By 5:44 a.m., motion detectors were going off and police were called, Executive Director Wendell Strode said. Security cameras at the museum (below) caught the destruction.

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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.

Of the eight cars that fell into the hole, the museum owned six and General Motors owned two. GM's Bowling Green Corvette plant, the only factory that builds Corvettes, is across a highway less than a half mile from the museum.

Cars involved in the incident, which occurred inside the museum's iconic spire called the Sky Dome, are these:

1962 black Corvette1984 PPG pace car for the Indy 5001992 white 1 millionth-built Corvette1993 ruby red 40th anniversary Corvette1993 ZR1 Spyder on loan from General Motors, a design study that was never built. 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette, a one-off tuner model.2009 white 1.5 millionth-built Corvette.2009 ZR1 "Blue Devil" on loan from General Motors, the show car for the re-introduction of the ZR1, last built in the early 1990s.

Staff were able to move 20 cars out of the Sky Dome later in the day after engineers determined that nothing was in danger of collapsing. Early in the day, Strobe said emergency personnel allowed museum staff to remove only one other car, the only surviving example of the "1983" Corvette. It had not fallen into the hole.

Andrea Hales, communications manager at the Bowling Green Corvette plant, said the Corvette was not produced in 1983. A six-month delay in the new generation created a model year gap. GM built about 40 prototype 1983s, whi! ch could not be sold, then built the production cars as 1984 models. It crushed all the 1983s except for the one given to the museum.

Hales added that the sinkhole had no effect on the nearby plant.

Bowling Green — about 60 miles northeast of Nashville and 100 miles southwest of Louisville — 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 and covers more than 400 square miles, according to the National Park Service.

Engineers determined that the building did not sustain any structural damage since the sinkhole was in the middle of the Sky Dome, museum spokeswoman Katie Frassinelli said.

"The structure of the building is intact and it's fine," she said.

“We're all feeling the same way: 'Oh man, that's a shame.'”

— Butch Hume, Falls City Corvette Club

Museum spokesman Bob Bubnis said officials anticipate repairing the sinkhole damage but said no timetable or plans for the repairs have been set. Officials don't anticipate having to move to a new site.

A monetary estimate of damage done to the museum and the vehicles involved has not been determined yet.

The cause of the sinkhole at the Corvette museum has not been determined, but oftentimes this kind of hole is caused by caves that expand over time until the surface gives way, said Jason Polk, a professor of geology and geography at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. Polk was part of the team investigating the cause and extent of the sink hole at the museum Wednesday.

"Eventually, the soil can't hold it," he said.

At this point, no other potenti! al sinkho! les appear to be threatening the rest of the museum, Polk said.

Butch Hume, president of Louisville's Falls City Corvette Club, cringed when he heard which cars were involved.

"I was stunned," he said. "What a terrible place for it to happen."

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The Sky Dome houses the museum's primo cars, Hume said. When news of the sinkhole started to spread, club members inundated Hume's cellphone with text messages wanting to know what had happened.

VIDEO: Director describes Corvette-eating sinkhole

"I think anybody who has a Corvette was stunned when they heard that," he said. "We're all feeling the same way: 'Oh man, that's a shame.' "

If the sinkhole had opened up later in the day when the museum was open, things could have been a lot worse, he said.

Within hours, Corvette aficionados started to offer assistance. Chuck McMurray, with Tamraz's Auto Parts in Plainfield, Ill., said his company is ready to jump in and help the museum find any original parts that might be needed to restore the damaged cars.

Calling the Corvette part of American history, McMurray said his company is ready to help.

"We have a warehouse full of really weird stuff that we've acquired over the last 50 years," he said.

The museum was open Wednesday, but the Sky Dome, in a separate building connected to the museum by a hallway, will be off limits for a while, Strode said.

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

A 40-foot sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky., swallowed eight of the cars on display Feb. 12.  National Corvette MuseumFullscreen A 40-foot sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky., swallowed eight of the cars on display.  National Corvette MuseumFullscreen The 'Sky Dome' at the National Corvette Museum.  Jim Roshan, Special for The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreen Corvettes are on display in the 'Sky Dome' at The National Corvette Museum.  Jim Roshan, Special for The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreen The front of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky.  Jim Roshan, Special for The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreen Corvettes are on display at The National Corvette Museum.  Jim Roshan, Special for The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreen This sign at the entrance guides people to the Corvette museum in Bowling Green, Ky., on May 23, 1997.  Keith Williams, The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreen A portrait of Zora Arkus-Duntov chief engineer of the Corvette was on display outside of the Cheverolet theater on May 27, 1997.  Keith Williams, The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreen J.R. Moffett looked at a 1959 Corvette in a period showroom at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. He drove from Fort Knox to tour the museum.  Keith Williams, The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreen Tracey Arand and Steve Meyman look at the display of Corvettes in Skydome of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. Ky., on May 23, 1997.  Keith Williams, The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreen Tracey Arand, left, and Steve Meyman look at the display of pictures of Corvettes as they stand in front of painting a Corvette on May 27, 1997.  Keith Williams, The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreen Corvettes are on display at The National Corvette Museum.  Jim Roshan, Special for The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreen A tour guide talks to a group of schoolkids at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky., on May 20, 2002.  Jim Roshan, Special for The (Louisville) Courier-JournalFullscreenLike this topic? You may also like these photo galleries:ReplayAutoplayShow ThumbnailsShow CaptionsLast SlideNext Slide

On the Job: Trust is key in the best workplaces

Earlier this year, the Gallup Organization asked Americans about the trust they had in various institutions, including Congress.

Congress received its lowest ratingever since Gallup began the poll in 1973. Only 10% of respondents said they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Congress.

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Those results may not really surprise many Americans, but they might be taken aback to learn in their own work life, their colleagues, bosses or employees may not trust them, either.

Another Gallup survey finds that only 30% of the 100 million full-time workers are actively engaged in their work. That lack of engagement stems from a lack of trust in an organization or a boss, says Nan S. Russell, author of Trust Inc.

Just as a lack of trust among lawmakers slows down business, so does a lack of trust and engagement in the workplace. Gallup estimates that the 70% of workers who are not engaged cost $450 billion to $550 billion a year in lost productivity.

In addition, disengaged and distrustful workers are less collaborative and innovative, Russell says.

"Part of the problem is that we always believe the lack of trust is someone else's problem," she says. "But the answer to developing better trust comes person to person."

That means that a boss who wants to develop more trust within his team doesn't wait for human resources or a corporate training program but instead moves ahead on his own to improve team members' confidence in one another.

"I think the biggest mistake people make when they think about trust is that they get it backwards," she says. "We look for people we can trust, instead of thinking about whether we are worthy of their trust. It's a mindset."

In her book, Russell addresses several issues, such as the kinds of behaviors that diminish trust. If you want to have more people trust you, she suggests you stop behaviors such as these:

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1. Piling on the hype. If you over promise and under deliver, it shows you don't take your words seriously — so no one trusts them.

2. Broadcasting distrust. Dictating to others and micromanaging can convey loudly and clearly that you don't trust others to do what needs to be done.

3. Avoiding responsibility. Maybe you wimp out, make excuses or blame others and refuse to apologize.

But such behavior doesn't portray you as a mature adult who can own his or her actions.

4. Spending too much time covering your behind. Hitting "reply all" and "cc-ing" your boss, your boss's boss and everyone else is not only annoying but shows that you don't trust anyone.

Such feelings also can infect the rest of your team.

5. Being a glory hog. Even if you worked really hard and put together a terrific project, chances are good that you were helped along the way by those offering pointers, ideas, resources and encouragement.

If you don't recognize others for the aid they offer, it reduces trust.

6. Spinning the truth. People have such a dismal opinion of politics right now, and much of it has to do with the spin that lawmakers seem to put on every issue.

Doing the same by deliberately misleading colleagues or being evasive can hurt your personal integrity and the trust others have in you.

7. Wimping out. When delivering a tough message, you hide behind texts or e-mails.

By not stepping up and personally communicating difficult information, you show you don't have what it takes to be trusted.

8. Abandoning self-control. We've all wanted to fire off nasty e-mails or make a snide remark, but personal integrity and professionalism generally hold us back.

If you let snarky comments fly, those personal attacks kill trust.

To engender trust, take actions that benefit someone else, genuinely care about others and be passionate about what you do, Russell says.

"It's all about w! ho you ar! e and how you show up," she says. "You give trust to get trust."

Anita Bruzzese is author of 45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy ... and How to Avoid Them, www.45things.com. Twitter: @AnitaBruzzese.