BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Work to rescue eight classic cars swallowed by a sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum is going faster than expected.
Wednesday, in an unexpected turn of events, workers were able to reach the Millionth Corvette and pull it free.
"Initially there was no intention to bring the Millionth out, but as we got in there and saw more this morning we did feel like this might be our best chance," said Danny Daniel, President of Scott, Murphy and Daniel Construction.
The car was pulled by one wheel from where it was lodged and swung free into the cavern. They were then able to lift the car and place it to rest, upside down on the bottom of the sinkhole. Finally, the Corvette was hooked up by its two tires for final lifting out of the sinkhole.
Although the Millionth Corvette suffered quite a bit of damage the undercarriage and frame look to be in good condition. Officials say it can be repaired.
This is the fourth car pulled from the sinkhole this week.
The other four cars will remain buried until workers further stabilize the sinkhole. That work could take two or three weeks.
The museum plans to display the damaged cars through August 3. The vehicles then will go to a Michigan plant for repairs.
The other cars damaged were a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder, a 1984 PPG Pace Car, a 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette and a 2009 white 1.5 Millionth Corvette.
The eight cars are widely believed to have a total value exceeding $1 million, the museum said.
Sinkholes are common in the Bowling Green area, which is located amid a large region of bedrock known as karst where many of Kentucky's largest and deepest caves run underground.
The museum is open except for the area where the sinkhole occurred.
