Waverly Hills tour guests evacuated into body chute during tornado warning

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- During the tornado warning Friday night, guests at Waverly Hills Sanatorium in southwest Louisville, known as one of the country's most haunted buildings, had to be evacuated into a body chute.

When there's a tornado warning, Waverly Hills' Operations Director Tonya Haynes said the dark and creepy tunnel is a potential life-saver.

“This is actually the safest place for them to be if something like that happens," Haynes said.

The body chute at the former tuberculosis hospital, in reality, is a tunnel.

"It was originally built to be a construction tunnel to bring up bricks to build the building that everybody wants to come see," Executive Director Dale Clark said. "They converted it into the body chute to get all the dead bodies off the hill both quickly and discreetly.”

Many people, like Kelly Brown and Mary Morrison, took it in stride, embracing the once-in-a lifetime experience. Some people sheltering there went down the steps a bit to explore the space further.

"It was just ironic having to go to the body chute for shelter," Morrison said. "... This is my life. That kind of stuff happens to me. I got to go to this body chute. At least I was still alive, went down alive, came back out alive and I don't think anything attached to me. I've been good so far.”

“It was interesting," said Brown, who was also on a tour at the time. "That was like the best experience. I love all the paranormal stuff. It didn't really faze me that we were kind of stuck in there. I felt like we were safe and I thought 'Well, cool. Maybe we'll see something down here.'”

The landmark building made a post on social media Saturday, thanking the guests for their cooperating and understanding.

"Safety for our customers and staff is our number one priority at all times. We appreciate every single one of you!" the facility wrote on Facebook.

The Facebook post has garnered more than 2,000 likes and over 400 shares. In the comments, one person said "been in there. I'd rather brave the tornado."

No tornadoes were confirmed in the city of Louisville. The National Weather Service has preliminary confirmed five tornadoes in Hardin, Bullitt and Breckinridge counties in Kentucky.

In Indiana, the weather service confirmed an EF-1 tornado in Washington County.

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