The National Corvette Museum's insurance agent is happy with how coverage was placed and says there are no coverage concerns regarding the sinkhole that claimed eight classic vehicles on the morning of Feb. 12.
Phyllis Milliner, client services manager and claims manager, and Michelle Montgomery, director of quality control, both with Bowling Green, Kentucky-based Van Meter Insurance Group, which placed the account, say the museum is covered under a broad Chubb Insurance Group commercial-property policy, with a collection endorsement to cover the vehicles themselves.
"We had tailored coverage to fit the needs of the museum," Montgomery says, noting that a standard policy without the endorsement would have left the damaged vehicles without coverage.
The value of the vehicles, she says, is based on appraisals the museum obtains regularly and insured to an agreed amount in the policy.
Milliner says there are "no issues as far as the value of the corvettes that went down or the building," and adds the agency is "very happy with how we placed coverage."
Montgomery and Milliner both say the sinkhole would be a covered peril, and Montgomery says the loss will involve one small deductible.
Additionally, Montgomery says the policy would also cover the two vehicles on loan from General Motors in addition to the six owned by the museum, pointing out that many cars at the museum are owned by other people who have loaned them.
Montgomery credits the speed with which Van Meter's personnel were able to begin work on the claim, noting that a Chubb adjuster was on the scene within four hours of the reported loss, which she says was "an accomplishment" as the Chubb claims office is in Arizona.
"We were very pleased to be able to get the insured an adjuster out there so quickly," Montgomery says.
Philadelphia Insurance Companies, which writes the casualty part of the account, declined to comment. At press time, Chubb had not responded to a request for comment. According to the National Corvette Museum's website, "Over 30 unique Corvettes" were housed in the Skydome that was affected by the sinkhole discovered early the morning of Feb. 12.
Bob Bubnis, communications coordinator at the National Corvette Museum, tells PC360 General Motors has "graciously stepped in" and offered to take on the task of overseeing the restoration of the vehicles damaged by the sinkhole. "That's quite a big thing," Bubnis notes, pointing out that only two of the eight vehicles were on loan from GM, while the other six are owned by the museum.
In a statement, GM says Chevrolet will oversee the restoration, with General Motors Design in Warren, Mich. leading the project.
"The vehicles at the National Corvette Museum are some of the most significant in automotive history," says Mark Reuss, executive vice president of General Motors Global Product Development in the statement. "There can only be one 1-millionth Corvette ever built. We want to ensure as many of the damaged cars are restored as possible so fans from around the world can enjoy them when the Museum reopens."
Steeped in Legend, the 1983 Corvette Lives On
Milliner says that while valuable cars were damaged by the sinkhole, some of the most valuable ones were spared. She says a 1983 Corvette was housed in the Skydome, but it escaped damage. 
And fortune truly seems to be with this particular vehicle. The 1983 Corvette at the museum is the only one in existence. The 1983 model year Corvette was never released to the public, as it featured so many advances, Bubnis says, that it would have taken too much time to validate and go through the government-approval process. Over 40 1983 Corvettes were actually made, but all were destroyed, mostly in testing, except the one.
"Part of this delves into the realm of legend," says Bubnis, when discussing the surviving '83 Corvette. "Some say the car was dismantled and hidden by plant employees to protect it, while others say the plant manager knew its value and kept it safe."
Bubnis adds that when the museum opened in 1994, it got the surviving 1983 corvette on loan from General Motors.
A 2011 story about the vehicle on examiner.com notes that, after delays, the 1983 model year was passed over and the 1984 Corvette went on sale in February 1983. After the recent sinkhole, Bubnis says the vehicle was safely removed from the area as soon as people were able to safely get to the Skydome. "That would have been catastrophic," he says of potential that the only remaining 1983 Corvette could have been lost.
The Science of Sinkholes
Sinkholes are common where rock below the land surface is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can naturally be dissolved by groundwater circulating through them. As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground.
Sinkholes are dramatic because the land usually stays intact for a while until the underground spaces expand too much. If there is not enough support for the land above the spaces, then a sudden collapse of the land surface can occur.
These collapses can be small, or as we have found recently, they can be rather extensive and occur where a house, road, or museum is situated. The latest sinkhole event on Feb. 12 has raised new concerns about the phenomenon and how best to mitigate loss. Even though Florida usually comes to mind when pondering such events, a large swath of the United States remains at risk for devastation far exceeding the loss of eight classic Corvettes.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the most damage from sinkholes tends to occur in Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. In fact, about 20 percent of the U.S. lies in areas susceptible to sinkhole events, further highlighting the need for ongoing research and the development of accurate geologic maps to help insurance carriers understand where sinkholes are most likely to occur.
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