Corvette Plant on Fire & no power due to Deadly Tornado

[teamzr1]

CORVETTE PLANT FIRE: Bowling Green, KY news outlets report a roof fire at the Corvette Plant following tornado.

“WNKY Television News 40 has confirmed that the Bowling Green Assembly (Corvette Plant) was impacted by a fire early this morning.”

This may impact all C8 to be built or on the line now

MAYFIELD, Ky. — After a historic quad-state weather system rolled through much of Western Kentucky Friday night, multiple tornadoes left widespread damage and many lives were lost.

The hardest hit place was in Graves County, where Governor Andy Beshear said that the city of Mayfield had been "devastated."

"The level of devastation is unlike anything I've ever seen," Beshear said in a noon press conference. "This will be, I believe, the deadliest tornado system to have ever run through Kentucky."

Earlier this morning, Beshear predicted there would be around 50 deaths, however he is now "certain" that more than 70 Kentuckians will have lost their life due to the storm.

"It may end up exceeding 100 before the day is done," he said.

Kentucky State Trooper Sarah Burgess said that there is significant damage reported, including a collapsed roof at a candle factory that had an estimated 110 people inside when the storm hit around 9:30 p.m. central time.

Beshear said the roof collapse caused "mass casualties."

"We're going to lose a lot of lives in that facility," Beshear said after coming back from seeing the factory in person. "It's a very dire situation at this point."

He said the building has been flattened and cars from the parking lot are on top of it, along with huge metal drums, some leaking corrosive chemicals.

"This is probably the toughest day of my life," Graves County Executive Judge Jesse Perry tearfully told the media.

 

[teamzr1]

Damage starting to be shown as the NCM track destroyed, many just built C8s damaged
Wonder what the effects are in those waiting for their built C8s and even if effects to RHD C8s being built or even
delay of C8 Z06s ?

 

[James Vette]

Free cars?

 

[teamzr1]

Imagine if one of those was waiting to ship to you for delivery ?

 

[Chuffer]

OMG ! real bad news .

 

[teamzr1]

BGP makes about 200 C8s per day and stores them in the lot
If we consider just 3 days of builds outside, that could be 600 C8s sitting there as a target for that storm.

Most people order the Z51 or other options, so just for numbers I will use $70,000 X 600 = $42,000,000 minimum

Imagine if many of those got some type of damage ?

What does GM do, call insurance company, send damaged ones to mexico, do a parking lot sale ?
Or still send them to dealers and have the customers go through the pain of getting warranty work done or
not finding problems until they take the C8s home ?

 

[teamzr1]

The second shift at General Motors Bowling Green Assembly in Kentucky ended late Friday, and some 400 workers filed out into the night.
But 20 or 30 remained inside the plant when, in the early morning hours Saturday, alarms inside the factory sounded.

The workers knew what it meant: Head to a designated shelter in the basement, said Jason Watson, shop chairman for UAW Local 2164, which represents the hourly workers at Bowling Green Assembly, located about an hour north of Nashville, Tennessee.

Within minutes a tornado touched down, tearing through the community with Bowling Green Assembly right in its path. The National Weather Service in Louisville estimated the tornado's wind speed in Bowling Green at 150 mph.

"Thankfully, all the systems in the plant worked," Watson told the Free Press. "The take-shelter alerts that are broadcast people took cover and once the all-clear sounded they were permitted to go home. None of them said they were scared, because they couldn't tell what was going on. When you're in the basement, a bomb could go off, and you wouldn't hear it."

But above ground, the plant's roof was on fire. There was sustainable damage to the building's shell, said Watson.
GM builds the popular Corvette sports car at Bowling Green, but this week production is idled and all 1,200 of those on the assembly line are laid off. About 90 skilled trades workers remain on the job, Watson said.

GM calls on Factory ZERO

GM confirmed the fire was a result of the tornado.
The fire damaged the facility, including the roof and an employee entrance.
"The small number of employees that were onsite are all safe," said GM spokesman David Barnas.
He said the plant shutdown is "only announced as down for this week at this point."

Barnas said GM was assessing and repairing damage. In the past 48 hours, GM has moved materials and resources from other GM locations to Bowling Green.
That includes construction cranes from Spring Hill Assembly in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and materials from Factory ZERO in Detroit and Hamtramck, where GM just finished retooling to make all-electric vehicles starting with the 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickup that is in production now.

On Monday UAW Local 22 President Wiley Turnage, who leads the local that represents union workers at Factory ZERO, declined to comment about Factory ZERO's efforts to help Bowling Green saying, "it's all still coming together."
Watson said whatever supplies Bowling Green gets from other facilities will help.

"GM is doing construction at Factory ZERO and Spring Hill, (and) we're obviously in need of building materials here," Watson said. "Trying to find building supplies, especially now in this area, will not be very fruitful."

Also, GM can't assess any interior plant damage until it fixes the exterior damage, Watson said.

"There are all kinds of visible damage throughout the building and structural things," Watson said.
"The building itself is what they're trying to concentrate on because there are multiple areas of the roof that were compromised and various siding surrounding the plant. They can't determine yet if there's damage to equipment or line, they're not turning it on yet."

 

[teamzr1]

GM is notified dealers of customers who are C8 Corvette owners were damaged due to the tornado that struck the Corvette Assembly Plant on Saturday, December 11th.

Been reporting that about 120 Corvettes inside the assembly plant “were damaged beyond repair and are being scrapped. Dealers with customer orders for their cars will have to resubmit the orders into GM’s Order Workbench System.”

That is a lot more cars than expected, but consider the damage that water can do to exposed interiors along with the electronics and wiring, it looks like GM is not taking a chance & is scrapping any car that may show the potential for damage due to the tornado strike.

One C8 customer stated that he was one of the owners with a damaged car.

“Just got a call from my dealer. Not good news. Our car was on the line at the time of the storm (probably coming off later in the day on Monday 12/13).
Cars on the line are being scrapped due to damage and/or potential damage.

Getting a new order number. Not sure at this time when we’re going to land in the process. TBD. Oh well, wait continues.
Disappointing, however considering all the heart break there, waiting is nothing like what’s happening in those areas. We were close.”

Another affected customer states :

“Heads up everybody. My VIN was 10109 and scheduled to be built this past Monday the 13th according to the spreadsheet here. I just got a call from my dealer that my car was actually built last Thur/Friday. Unfortunately, it was damaged and has to be rebuilt. He said all the damaged cars are going to go back to the front of the line.
If you had a Vin # somewhere around mine, there is a chance your car was built and is fine, hopefully.”

He also says his rep asked him if we wanted to make any changes from the old order, so at least he can reconfirm that he is getting the exact Corvette he wants now.
As for these customers, we are getting the idea that Chevy will take these new resubmitted orders and then work them back into the production schedule sooner rather than later, so hopefully the wait for these affected customers will not be too severe.

Also stated that about 600 completed Corvettes “stored outside the plant awaiting shipping are still being assessed for damage.
Those vehicles are currently on hold and will not ship to their respective dealers until a full damage assessment is completed.”

 

[Stingray]

Seems strange to write off cars inside the factory while still assessing those parked outside.

I guess the problem may be the sequential nature of assembly such that it's hard to re-start the line with all different cars at different uncertain and/or damaged stages of build. No doubt the ones dragged away will be broken for parts and then fed back into the system in one way or another, even if only as spares for the aftermarket. Under normal circumstances the "rectifications" area can fix just about anything - although capacity is limited.

 

[teamzr1]

Too many damaged and the plant is designed and setup to assemble, so the line is automated for parts, robots, what workers do, etc
It may be far cheaper to do write-offs and let the insurance pay out and not stop the line in building revenue of each
car being 60-110K bucks
GM should do a parking lot sale, bring your own trailer or auction !

Those outside have to be assessed as if just minor repairs or decide to also take the loss and not fix them
C8s inside got a lot of water in them as fire department flooding the area due to the amount of area that was on fire or crap that fell from the roof
Wonder if the automated paint shop area got wacked ?

GM I love you, so how about you give me a free one !
Maybe those are the ones they will send to the UK and have you fix them !

 

[Chuffer]

I will happily take a dented one and run it as a `Rat Motor` .

 

[teamzr1]

10 million dollars of brand new C8s that were damaged in the storm, slated to be crushed !
All 130 C8s you see here were damaged

Damn, you think GM would make some deal for someone to buy them all on promise of only be used for parts

 

[Roscobbc]

Knowing how unscrupulous some of the car salvage dealers are could you trust some of them to not sell complete cars, perhaps in some form of knock-down kit to Eastern European and other locations that don't observe Carfax and other salvage registries. The business of shipping salvage vehicles from the 'States to European buyers is so huge with 'ringers' and dodgy repaired late model cars released back on the market that no major manufacturer would logically do that. We have seen our own share of USA scrapper's here in UK with dubious re-builds.

 

[Chuffer]

Knowing how unscrupulous some of the car salvage dealers are could you trust some of them to not sell complete cars, perhaps in some form of knock-down kit to Eastern European and other locations that don't observe Carfax and other salvage registries. The business of shipping salvage vehicles from the 'States to European buyers is so huge with dodgy repaired late model cars released back on thr the market that no major manufacturer would logically do that. We have seen our own share of USA scrapper's here in UK with dubious re-builds.

At last , some sage words on the whole sell / scrap / breakdown for parts hypothesising !

 

[teamzr1]

More video of the damaged new C8s from storm

 

[teamzr1]

The claims for GM’s Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green may cost insurance underwriters an estimated $225 Million following a tornado strike and fire at the facility which occurred in the early morning hours of December 11th.

That’s according to the website The Insurer which tracks the global risk industry.

According to their sources, the insurance losses are being written off by a number of carriers that include Allianz, Zurich, Axa XL, Munich Re, Allied World, Sompo and Argo.
The initial estimates include $175 Million for physical damage to property, equipment, and vehicles.

Another $50 Million is expected to cover business interruption losses that occurred when the plant was shut down for repairs.

The report suggests that costs of scrapping the 120 or so damaged Corvettes may only total around $7.3 million, as the starting price tag for the 2022 Corvette is $61,000.

However, current surveys show the average transaction price for the 2022 Corvette at $96,000, which would increase the payout for vehicles to $11.5 Million.

Total industry losses from the December tornadoes are expected to come in at the low-to-mid single digit billions of dollars level.

Modeling firm Karen Clark & Company put out a preliminary loss estimate for the severe weather outbreak of $3 Billion on December 14th.