Waffle House Index

Added by Matt • Updated 8 months ago by Autumn Able

Waffle House restaurant with a map of closed waffle house restaurants overlaid atop the image.

Category: Meme Status: Submission Year: 2011 Origin: FEMA Region:

Type: Axiom

Tags: waffle house food fema disaster craig fugate federal emergency management agency fivethirtyeight

Additional References: Wikipedia

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fjord @ bed @harrison_fjord to clarify, the waffle house index is an informal indicator of the damage caused by a natural disaster or other sort of crisis. So having 18% of wahos closed is indicative of a pretty serious crisis Waffle House @WaffleHouse · Mar 24 #WaffleHouselndexRed: 365 Waffle House restaurants closed. 1,627 open. 365 Closed W AFFLE HOUSE. 1,627 Open Peorla INDIANA Altoona ILLINOIS Cumberland ARYLA OEallon Cincin MISSOORI Cel rnold DELAW WEST VIRGINIA Salisbui Evansville ENTUCK Roan Pa VIRGINIA Portsmi King Suffo Springdale 8:56 AM · Mar 24, 2020 · Twitter Web App

molly conger @socialistdogmom FEMA literally uses something called the waffle house index to help determine the scale of disaster relief efforts after a hurricane. this is ominous. WAFB @WAFB 20h Waffle House closes 365 locations across the U.S. bit.ly/3bpbFBz 6:36 PM · Mar 24, 2020 · Twitter for iPhone

Mika McKinnon @mikamckinnon The Waffle House Index is an informal measure of disaster severity. Waffle House has incredible resiliency plans including limited menus to maintain minimal operation. So for them to close? Like, actually close? That's a Big Deal. WAFB @WAFB · 20h Waffle House closes 365 locations across the U.S. bit.ly/3bpbFBz 7:15 PM · Mar 24, 2020 · Twitter for iPhone

WAFFLE HOUSE. EMERGENCY MENU We are only able to serve a very limited menu during this time. DINE IN MENU All Items available 24 hours Two Eggs* Toast & Grits. Sausage Sandwich Grilled Ham Sandwich.... Sausage Biscuit... BREAKFAST N $ 3.45 $ 2.95 $ 2.95 $ 1.05 Add Cheese $0.40 Add Egg* $ 0.40 LUNCH AND DINNER 1/4 Ib. Angus Hamburger*... Double Angus Hamburger*. Grilled Chicken Sandwich. Grilled Ham Sandwich... $ 2.85 $ 3.90 $ 3.70 $ 2.95 $ 2.25 Add Cheese $0.40 Grilled Cheese Sandwich... SIDES Sausage.. City Ham. Grits.... Pastries... $ 2.60 $ 2.65 $ 1.70 $ 2.10 BEVERAGES Coffee. Alice's Iced Tea.. Soft Drinks... $ 1.60 $ 1.65 $ 1.65 If "TO GO" is available, prices for "TO GO" items are the dine-in price plus a 10% service charge. Prices include tax. Some items may not be available. Thank you for your understanding. *PUBLIC HEALTH ADVISORY: EGGS, HAMBURGERS AND STEAKS MAY BE COOKED TO ORDER. HOWEVER, THE CONSUMPTION OF RAW OR UNDERCOOKED FOOD SUCH AS EGGS, HAMBURGERS, AND STEAKS WHICH MAY CONTAIN HARMFUL BACTERIA, MAY CAUSE SERIOUS ILLNESS OR DEATH, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE CERTAIN MEDICAL CONDITIONS. EFFECTIVE DATES: 5/1/13 - 9/17/13 (FY13 OP13 - FY14 OP04) Menu Code: WHI-13-121

WAFELE HOUSE HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS: If a hurricane watch is declared for your area: 1. Review the post-storm opening plan with your manager. 2. Let your manager know what your family's evacuation plan is and where you plan to go. 3. Make sure you have the current hurricane key fob on your key ring. 4. Immediately following the storm call your manager (or a manager on the key fob) or report to your Unit to check in. We want to know if you and your family are safe. If your Unit is not open, find one that is and check in there. We will be opening Units immediately following the storm to serve the public. (Oh by the way, we will be very busy and you will make lots of money!) Be Safe!

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Category: Meme Status: Submission Year: 2011 Origin: FEMA Region:

Type: Axiom

Tags: waffle house food fema disaster craig fugate federal emergency management agency fivethirtyeight

Additional References: Wikipedia

About

The Waffle House Index is a metric used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to determine the effect of a disaster based on the number of open Waffle House restaurants. Coined by former FEMA director Craig Fugate, the scale follows an informal rule that, as Fugate stated, "If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That's really bad."

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In May 2011, following the Joplin tornado, then-FEMA head Craig Fugate coined the scale based on the two Waffle House restaurants still open. The chain has a reputation for remaining open 24-hours a day even during extreme weather. Occasionally, they remain open with a limited menu.^[1]^[2]

Based on this, FEMA determined this informal index based on three color-coded levels:

GREEN: full menu – restaurant has power and damage is limited or no damage at all.
YELLOW: limited menu – no power or only power from a generator, or food supplies may be low.
RED: the restaurant is closed – indicating severe damage or severe flooding.

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The following year, FEMA published the article

Over the next few years, the Waffle House Index became the subject of public interest, inspiring news reports and studies. For example on December 4th, 2012, HLN published a report about the Index on YouTube (shown below).

Other outlets, including Business Insider and Fox News also published reports on the Index in the following years (examples below, left and right).

On December 6th, 2016, FiveThirtyEight^[3] published a report on the Waffle House Index.

They wrote:

as the storm made landfall, some locations of Waffle House -- which boasts that every restaurant stays open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year -- would probably have to close because of power loss or concerns for workers’ safety. And second, sometime after they did, someone would invoke the “Waffle House Index,” the slightly flippant measure of how bad a storm can get.

And Matthew brought on both those expected scenarios. Waffle House announced Oct. 6 that it was pre-emptively closing some restaurants on a 90-mile stretch of Interstate 95 between Fort Pierce and Titusville in Florida. (In the next few days, as the storm churned up the coast and flooded North Carolina, it would close 98 all told.) And as soon as the announcement went out, media tracking the storm, and customers on social media, invoked the closings as a sign of the apocalypse.

The Index has inspired conversation on various websites, including Reddit. The topic has been discussed on various subreddits such as /r/todayilearned, ^[5]^[6] /r/circlejerk^[7] and /r/wallstreetbets.^[8]

Waffle House has also acknowledged the Index. On March 25th, 2020, for example, during the coronavirus outbreak they posted on Facebook, ^[4] "#WaffleHouseIndexRed: 418 Waffle House restaurants closed. 1,574 open." The post received more than 1,000 shares, 635 reactions and 200 comments in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Wafflehouse index showing the breakout of Covid-19

That day, following Waffle House's decision to close 365 locations across the U.S., geophysicist and disaster researcher Mika McKinnon tweeted,^[9] "The Waffle House Index is an informal measure of disaster severity. Waffle House has incredible resiliency plans including limited menus to maintain minimal operation. So for them to close? Like, actually close? That’s a Big Deal." The tweet received more than 16,000 likes and 5,900 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Others shared the sentiment on Twitter (examples below, center and right).