Here’s What Waffle House Closures Say About Storm Severity

Hurricane Helene has made landfall. Like every hurricane season, those of us who have friends and family in the path of the storm are checking for updates and waiting to hear confirmation that everyone is OK, while those living in the heart of the danger are making gut-wrenching decisions about how best to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.

One of the main sources of information about active hurricanes is the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale; it’s what classifies hurricanes as Category One, Category Two, etc. But another less-known source for information is the Waffle House Index.

What Is The Waffle House Index?

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The Waffle House Index is a three-level guide that indicates how operational Waffle House locations in hurricane-affected areas are. Green indicates that a restaurant is open and serving its full menu. Yellow indicates that it’s a limited menu, and red means the establishment is completely closed. These codes indicate how much debris and damage is in the area.

How To Use the Waffle House Index

Here’s how the Waffle House index works:

• Green, meaning full service, suggests that the Waffle House location has power and that the roads are manageable.
• Yellow indicates that the location is running on backup generators and is low on food.
• Red means the restaurant is fully closed.

Waffle House is famous for being open 24/7/365, so a full closure is a sign of major damage to the surrounding area. Downed trees and debris are likely blocking roads, power is out, there may be severe flooding, etc.

According to K. Annabell Smith, in an article for The Smithsonian, the franchise will often tweet out storm updates as well as restaurant statuses and closures so that the local community can stay up to date. And when the restaurants are open, they’re often “the only place in town to get a much-needed meal.” If locals can leave their homes, they can find community and some relief at the diner

How FEMA Uses the Waffle House Index

FEMA has embraced the Waffle House Index. In fact, FEMA Agency Director W. Craig Fugate is credited with coining the term. The agency utilizes the index to help map out the disaster. It’s not their only metric, but areas where it’s red are almost assuredly the hardest hit by any given natural disaster.

Sources

• WaffleHouse.com: “How to Measure a Storm’s Fury One Breakfast at a Time”
• FEMA.org: “It’s a Little Piece of Normal” (2017)
• EHSToday.com: What Do Waffles Have to Do with Risk Management? (2011)
• SmithsonianMag.com: How Waffle House Uses Twitter to Help Recovery Efforts (2016)