Theme park sues insurance company after rain damages Noah’s Ark exhibit

The Ark Encounter’s fundamentalist Christian founders say evolution is a fraud, but their boat isn’t as sturdy in rain as the original apparently was.

In a tale that has a divine right of existing in the Alanis Morissette pop classic “Ironic” — a creationist theme park is suing an insurance company over rain-related damages to its replica Noah’s Ark.

Yes, that ark. The boat that God instructed Noah to build in the Bible so he could save the world’s animals from a global-engulfing flood.

The biblical character built a boat ready to take on the flow of water when the “the fountains of the Great Deep burst apart and the floodgates of heaven broke open”.

Apparently it then rained for 40 days and 40 nights.

But at Ark Encounter, the multimillion-dollar theme park dedicated to fundamentalist Christianity where the centrepiece is a giant replica Noah’s Ark, a steady flow of Kentucky rain was too much for its nearby roads to handle.

Nearly 9000 visited Ark Encounter @ArkEncounter & Creation Museum @CreationMuseum yesterday. Video taken yesterday at Ark. (Note Ark themed attraction sits on a high ridge--so if there was ever a flood at the Ark then most of KY & other states would be totally flooded!!!) pic.twitter.com/UmCcQcm6Lc

— Ken Ham (@aigkenham) May 26, 2019

The group behind the big boat in United States’ south are demanding their insurance company bail them out after heavy rains caused nearly $A1.44 million in property damage.

The Ark Encounter says in a federal lawsuit that rains in 2017 and 2018 caused a landslide on its access road.

The Courier Journal reports the attraction’s insurance carriers refused to cover the damage.

The 155-metre-long wooden ark has been a popular attraction since its 2016 opening.

The lawsuit says the road has been rebuilt. The ark was not damaged.

Ken Ham speaks at a ribbon-cutting for Ark Encounter on July 5, 2016. Picture: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images/AFP

WHAT IS ARK ENCOUNTER?

The $100 million monolith is seven storeys high and, in 2017, was the biggest timber-framed structure on the planet.

Its exhibits present a “young Earth creationist” interpretation of Scripture, including that evolution is a fraud, the world is only 6000 years old and homosexuality is a sin.

When former Brisbane schoolteacher Ken Ham, who was the founder and president of Christian fundamentalist group Answers In Genesis (AiG), built the ark he said it would be “one of the greatest Christian outreaches of our era”, attracting up to two million visitors a year.

The theme park received generous — and disputed — local and state tax breaks in return for its promises of economic development, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.

But the tourists haven’t come in the numbers forecast, and some of the locals aren’t happy.

Mr Ham says Ark Encounter isn’t a victim of bad tourist numbers but bad press. Picture: Channel 7

BOUGHT AND SOLD … FOR $10

Ark Encounter has had a checkered history. Mr Ham said its establishment was funded purely by AIG but concedes it was also made feasible thanks to tax breaks and government incentives.

The state of Kentucky awarded it a sales tax rebate under a tourism tax incentive program for up to $A26 million over 10 years. That was cancelled after state officials found out the attraction would require declarations of Christian faith from potential employees.

But when Ark Encounter officials sued, and won, the rebate was restored.

It does look pretty cool.

Then, in late June 2017, Mr Ham raised more hackles when the city of Williamstown tried to introduce a new “safety tax” of 70 cents per ticket sold at Ark Encounter to upgrade the city’s emergency services.

Going on Ark Encounter’s own tourism numbers, it would cost the theme park an estimated $A1 million.

“Blindsided” Ark Encounter officials said it was unfair.

As the two sides traded arguments, the land on which the theme park sits suddenly changed hands.

Mr Ham sold it effectively to himself. For $A14.

Ownership of Ark Encounter by Mr Ham’s non-profit affiliate entity, Crosswater Canyon, according to the Huffington Post, signalled Ark Encounter might be setting itself up to claim non-profit status, exempting itself from a sea of taxes.

But on July 18 in the same year, the state of Kentucky suspended the $A26 million tax break, saying the land sale breached the sales tax rebate incentive agreement, which was with Ark Encounter LLC, not Crosswater Canyon.

Three days later, the land was sold back to Ark Encounter. For $14. It was back to a for-profit company again.

— with AP

Continue the conversation on Twitter @James_P_Hall or [e-mail]