Massachusetts Sinkhole Opens Up, Swallows Several Cadillacs, the dealership crying upon seeing the bill
The city of Leominster was slammed by rain, and sinkholes opened up all over town … including beneath a Cadillac dealership.
Buyer’s Guide
One town in Massachusetts, Leominster, was absolutely slammed with rain recently, causing havoc all over the city. Roads washed out, homes and businesses flooded, and—as can happen when a lotta water starts sloshing around above ground or below—sinkholes opened up at various places around town, about an hour outside of Boston. One sinkhole in particular had a hunger for Cadillacs.
As you can see in the dramatic footage below, Leominster Cadillac—which sits right on the bank of the Nashua River—nearly lost three vehicles entirely to the intense flooding. A sinkhole opened up underneath a front patio area, causing much of it to slump into a jumble of pavers. It displaced several Cadillacs—two XT5s and an XT6—possibly causing some damage.
There’s good news and bad news here. Unlike the Corvette Museum sinkhole that went viral several years ago, the depth and suddenness of the sinkhole’s opening didn’t obviously destroy the vehicles, as it did for some of those unfortunate sports cars in Bowling Green, Kentucky. But there’s a chance these Cadillacs will need some reconditioning to be salable, and if there’s flood damage, all the worse. The bad news (for the dealership) is a lack of flood insurance, so it sounds like any reconditioning will come out of the dealer’s pocket.
As you can see in the video, slings attached to the wheels raised at least one vehicle out of the hole. The dealership’s owner, Rick Durand, told CBS news that he was hoping to remove the vehicles from the hole without causing any more damage to them. After that, it’s going to be a long (and likely expensive) process to rebuild the patio and do any other required work to get the dealership back into top shape.
As for the rest of the town, Leominster will need a long time to rebuild from the devastating floods—and dozens of owners will have to deal with flood-damaged (and washed-away) cars.
