LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville Zoo and Mega Cavern will remain closed through the weekend after a massive sinkhole was discovered near the zoo early Wednesday morning.
“We're continuing to monitor those above ground fissures,” Mitchell Burmeister with Metro Emergency Services said on Thursday.
Staff at the Louisville Zoo noticed the large sinkhole on the property during their morning rounds, closing both the zoo and nearby Mega Cavern.
The zoo said on March 7 the sinkhole was 60 yards wide and 90 yards long.
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The hole, staff said, is at least 100 feet away from the first fenced enclosure for the zoo, but it is where the property lines meet for the zoo and cavern.
Engineers have inspected above and below ground.
“There is some debris that has fallen in a completely unoccupied section of the cavern and it's isolated,” Meiman explained on Wednesday.
“We haven't seen any more substantial movement, just that one same spot we were looking at yesterday. Again, all the neighboring businesses and homes, anything in that adjacent area has been determined to be safe,” Burmeister explained in an update on Thursday.
The main concern is safety moving forward.
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“We've got a lot of people that visit underground we've got a lot of people that visit above ground, so we've got to make sure on both levels it's 100-percent safe,” Meiman said.
Crews kept a close eye on the sinkhole overnight to see if it was growing.
“We painted the cracks in the ground, we call those fissures. we can see if they get any wider by looking at that paint to see if it's expanded any,” Meiman said.
Officials said Thursday there were no significant changes.
The sinkhole happened after a Tennessee earthquake, but officials do not believe the earthquake is the cause.
“It could be from the potential rain that we got, runoff, it could be something naturally that was occurring underground,” Meiman said.
Mega Cavern staff heard a loud noise between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. while replacing zip lines underground.
No people or animals were harmed before staff found the sinkhole.
Officials also said those who live nearby are safe.
Both the Louisville Zoo and Mega Cavern will be closed Friday and will remain closed until the area passes inspection by engineers. Louisville Underground opened at 8 a.m. on Thursday as engineers deemed that area safe.
