Waffle House Index

The Waffle House Index is a metric named after the Southern US restaurant chain Waffle House known for its 24-hour, 365-day service. Because the restaurant chain is always open (except in extreme circumstances), it has given rise to an informal but useful metric to determine the severity of a storm and the likely scale of assistance required for disaster recovery. The metric was first coined by Craig Fugate in August 2004 after Hurricane Charley. He was leading the Florida Division of Emergency Management. The metric is unofficially used by FEMA to inform disaster response.

Description

The index is based on Waffle House's reputation for strong disaster preparedness and for staying open during extreme weather or reopening quickly afterwards.

If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That's really bad...

Levels

The index consists of three levels, based on the extent of operations and service at the restaurant following a storm:

Background

In August 2004, following Hurricane Charley in Florida, Craig Fugate, who was leading Florida's Division of Emergency Management at the time, along with Tad Warfel and Ben Nelson, coined the scale based on the status of Waffle House restaurants still open in areas that had been hit by a disaster.

The phenomenon was also observed and reported by journalist Matt Dellinger in a 2006 article in The Oxford American, in which he noted that he had "found a way to map the destruction from Hurricane Katrina: look for Waffle Houses."

The term was also used by FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate in May 2011 following the 2011 Joplin tornado, during which the two Waffle House restaurants in Joplin remained open.

The measure is based on Waffle House's reputation for staying open during extreme weather and for reopening quickly, albeit sometimes with a limited menu, after very severe weather events such as tornadoes or hurricanes. The chain's disaster preparedness measures include assembling and training "Waffle House jump teams" to facilitate fast reopening after disasters. Waffle House, along with other chains (such as Home Depot, Walmart, and Lowe's) which do a significant proportion of their business in the southern US where there is a frequent risk of hurricanes, have good risk management and disaster preparedness. Because of this, and the fact that a cut-down menu is prepared for times when there is no power or limited supplies, the Waffle House Index rarely reaches the red (closed) level.

The "Waffle House Index" sits alongside more formal measures of wind, rainfall, and other weather information, such as the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale, which are used to indicate the intensity of a storm.

Dan Stoneking, FEMA director of external affairs, wrote in a FEMA blog post:

As Craig [Fugate] often says, the Waffle House test doesn't just tell us how quickly a business might rebound – it also tells us how the larger community is faring. The sooner restaurants, grocery and corner stores, or banks can re-open, the sooner local economies will start generating revenue again – signaling a stronger recovery for that community. The success of the private sector in preparing for and weathering disasters is essential to a community's ability to recover in the long run.

A FOIA request response in 2017 included emails saying that the Waffle House Index was a personal project of Craig Fugate's, denying a connection between the Waffle House Index and FEMA's National Business Emergency Operations Center.

Examples

• In 2022, because of the expected severity of Hurricane Ian, 35 Waffle Houses closed in Florida prior to the storm's arrival, an extremely rare event. Hurricane Ian eventually made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 miles per hour (240 km/h), peaking out over the Atlantic Ocean as a Category 5 hurricane.
• Ahead of Hurricane Helene in September 2024, a Waffle House in Crawfordville shut down, raising the Waffle House Index to red.
• In preparation for Hurricane Milton in October 2024, Waffle House announced that 25 Waffle House locations in the Tampa Bay area and eight in the Fort Myers area would close on October 8 prior to the storm's arrival.

See also

• Big Mac Index – Economic index published by The Economist
• Tornado intensity and damage – Measurement of strength and severity of tornadoesPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Christmas Price Index
• List of humorous units of measurement
• List of unusual units of measurement

References

External links

• FEMA Blog: News of the Day (July 7, 2011) – What do Waffle Houses Have to Do with Risk Management?
• Always Open | Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine
• Colbert Report segment on FEMA's Waffle House Index
• Data Crunch episode on the Waffle House Index