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. The restaurant chain is always open, 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.

Levels

The index consists of three levels, based on the extent of operations and service at the restaurant following a storm:
LevelServiceImplication
GREENFull menuRestaurant has power and damage is minimal or absent.
YELLOWLimited menuPower is either absent or delivered by a generator, or food supplies are running low.
REDRestaurant is closedIndicates severe damage, severe flooding; Severe destruction to the restaurant.

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 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 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:
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