Topline
Dozens of locations of the 24/7 breakfast restaurant Waffle House in Florida will close their doors by 2 p.m. Wednesday in anticipation of Hurricane Milton’s expected evening landfall, making the storm a “red” on the federally recognized “Waffle House Index” that can quickly explain the severity of an impending weather event.
A sign on a closed Waffle House on Highway US 19 in anticipation of Hurricane Milton on Tuesday, … [+]
Key Facts
Waffle House—which has famously stayed open through hurricanes, blizzards and other natural disasters—will close locations in and around Tampa, Fort Meyers, Orlando, Ocala and Daytona, Florida as of 2 p.m. Wednesday (locations in Gainesville and Miami will stay open).
Former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Craig Fugate coined the “Waffle House Index” in 2011 after a tornado barreled through Joplin, Missouri, and two of the chain’s restaurants in the city remained open, prompting him to say “If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That’s really bad.”
If Waffle Houses in an area are open and serving a full menu, it’s a green on the index, while a limited menu is a yellow on the scale, meaning the local area could be without electricity or water, and the index goes to red if the locations close down, indicating the local community will be in need of significant help.
Waffle House has its own storm center that is activated when planning for a natural disaster, and FEMA said it’s just one of the business partners that helps the agency gauge how a community is recovering (along with Target, Walmart, Lowes and others).
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Crucial Quote
“If a Waffle House can serve a full menu, they’ve likely got power (or are running on a generator),” Fugate said in an FEMA agency blog post several years ago. “A limited menu means an area may not have running water or electricity, but there’s gas for the stove to make bacon, eggs, and coffee: exactly what hungry, weary people need.”
Key Background
Waffle House closed all of its Tallahassee locations and a nearby Crawfordville location in Florida last month in preparation for Hurricane Helene, which went on to kill more than 20 people in the state. In making the decision, the company told USA Today it relies on weather forecasting and government advisories, and also tends to follow mandatory evacuation orders. On Sept. 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 in Florida’s Big Bend area. The storm moved through Florida and much of Georgia overnight before devastating western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. More than 200 people have died and hundreds more are missing in the southeast.
Tangent
Not only is Waffle House known for staying open until the most desperate of times, it’s also known for quickly getting back on its feet. During Hurricane Irene in 2011, Waffle House lost power to 22 restaurants in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. Within days, all but one had reopened. In Weldon, N.C., it did so without power, serving scrambled eggs and sausage biscuits cooked on a gas stove. In a blog post, Waffle House said it has taken its post-disaster business strategy particularly seriously since Hurricane Katrina shut down more than 100 locations and destroyed seven in 2005. Despite the damage, “those that reopened quickly were swamped with customers.”
