How Waffle House helps Southerners — and FEMA — judge storm severity

Crispy waffles with golden hashbrowns, gravy-smothered biscuits and maple syrup are among the classic Southern comfort foods. But when hurricane Tear through the southeastern cities, hot food and bold yellow signs of the locals Waffle House Providing other types of comfort.

If a Waffle House is open in town, even at limited capacity, neighbors are reassured that an impending storm won't cause destruction. A closed location at a reliable dinner chain has come to indicate impending disaster. The metric is known as the Waffle House Index.

What may sound like silly logic has turned out to be the most reliable way for Southerners — and even federal officials — to gauge the severity of a storm and identify communities most in need of immediate assistance.

About two dozen Waffle House locations were closed Tuesday in the Carolinas and the chain's home state of Georgia, nearly two weeks after the states were among those hit. Hurricane Helen. Several other locations were open but serving a limited menu.

as Hurricane Milton Florida communities along the Gulf Coast, including Tampa, Cape Coral and St. Petersburg, are still recovering. Closed in preparation.

What is the Waffle House Index?

South's favorite disaster authority provides an informal measure of how significantly a storm will impact or affect a community.

A map of the chain's more than 1,900 locations, centered in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, helps residents of storm-prone states assess whether they're likely to lose power, experience severe flooding or endure other extreme conditions that cause a resilient restaurant. can For some whose door is closed, it's a telltale sign of whether they need to evacuate.

Waffle House is known not only for serving breakfast, 24/7, 365 days a year, but also for disaster preparedness. For decades, people across the South have noticed that the local Waffle House seems to be the only business still open during a storm or the first to reopen after it passes.

The restaurant chain's reputation for staying open becomes a fairly reliable — albeit fun — resource to help track recovery efforts when people need a place to warm up, charge devices, and grab a hot meal.

How does the index work?

Waffle House's social media shares color-coded maps of its restaurant locations in certain areas that will soon be hit or are recovering from storm damage. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also offers some live tracking.

Green means the location is serving a full menu, indicating minimal damage to the surrounding area. The lights are on and the syrup is flowing.

Yellow means the restaurant is serving a limited menu, a signal that it's drawing power from a generator and may be running low on food. The area may not have running water or electricity, but there is enough gas to fry bacon for hungry customers.

Red means the location is closed, a sign of unsafe operating conditions and serious damage to the restaurant or surrounding community.

How to start indexing?

Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said he thought of the Waffle House Index in 2004 while leading Florida's emergency management efforts. He was looking for something to eat while surveying the devastation left by Hurricane Charley and was only able to find a Waffle House serving a limited menu.

His team began noticing other open Waffle Houses in the community without electricity or running water. The restaurants eventually became a major feature of a color-coded map that his team provided to help the public and local officials identify where the storm damage was most severe.

Fugate continued to use his color-coded maps when he joined under FEMA President Barack Obama. He was the agency's administrator in 2011 when a deadly tornado struck Joplin, Missouri. Both Waffle Houses in town were reportedly open.

The restaurant chain's preparations for disaster are no coincidence. Seven locations were demolished in 2005 and another 100 closed Hurricane KatrinaBut company officials saw business skyrocket at restaurants that quickly reopened.

They soon embrace Business strategy According to the company's website, the focus is on keeping their restaurants operating during and after disasters. The chain said it has invested in portable generators, purchased a mobile command center and trained employees on what services they can provide even if power is out.

What does the index say about Hurricane Milton?

Waffle House closed several Florida locations before Hurricane Milton made landfall, indicating that damage would be severe.

Milton was Upgrade back to a Category 5 storm It churned toward Florida's west coast on Tuesday. A severe storm can make landfall once in a century direct hit In Tampa and St. Petersburg, associated with populated areas big storm and turning debris from Helen's doom in projectiles