Ghost hunters forced to flee ‘haunted’ sanatorium via dead body chute amid tornado

Tunnel for transporting corpses ‘better than a basement’, organisers say

A group of ghost hunters were forced to flee a “haunted” sanatorium through a “dead body chute” after a tornado warning was issued for Louisville, Kentucky.

The group were inside the Waverly Hills Sanatorium on Friday when a tornado warning came in for Jefferson County, Kentucky, and the Louisville metro area.

Guests were taken into a tunnel underneath the 112-year-old former sanatorium and entertained by tour guides with stories about the “hunted” building until the tornado warning ended, a tour organiser said.

“It was an automated phone call from (Louisville) metro services basically saying that bad weather was coming and to take cover,” a tour organiser told WHAS11.

“The air raid sirens went off and all of our people have to have radios for such an emergency and we actually came up with a plan when those tornadoes hit in December,” he explained. “I’ll radio all the tour guides to quickly, calmly and as safely as possible to get everybody down here.”

The tunnel, also known as the “dead body chute”, was described as being “better than a basement” for sheltering from a tornado because it is underground.

The Waverly Hills Sanatorium, outside Louisville, Kentucky (WHAS11)

The tunnel was used to transport corpses out of the century-old building when it was used as a hospital for tuberculosis patients between 1910 and 1961, and tours of the allegedly “haunted” building are popular with locals and beyond.

On Saturday, the Waverly Hills Sanatorium thanked its guests for their “cooperation and understanding” and said “safety for our customers and staff is our number one priority at all times”, in an Instagram post.

Sanatoriums were built all across the United States in areas with fresh air to allow patients to recover, according to the Waverly Hills Historical Society who manage the building.

Waverly Hills is also iconic for its Tudor Gothic Revival style, as well as being among the most “haunted” places in the US. It was however derelict before the society took ownership in 2001.