Table Of Content
- What can the 'Waffle House Index' tell you about storms?
- Couple accidentally ships cat from Utah to Southern …
- WTSP would like to send you push notifications about the latest news and weather.
- After a hurricane, the 24/7 restaurant provides one measure of how infrastructure and supply chains are holding up.
- Fox 7 photographer among those arrested at University of Texas at Austin

Anytime a hurricane heads to a location Waffle House serves, the company’s crisis response team springs into action, working with employees before the storm and helping them get back to work, if they can, after the disaster. The historic high-end Category 3 hurricane drove a "catastrophic" storm surge and birthed flooding for hundreds of miles before powering into the southern Georgia border around 11 a.m. Fugate remembered responding to a deadly tornado that had torn through Joplin, Missouri, in 2011.

What can the 'Waffle House Index' tell you about storms?
As [FEMA Director W. 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. 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. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Waffle House is famed for more than just its all-day breakfast.
Couple accidentally ships cat from Utah to Southern …
Over the years there have been several news articles to come out about a little something called the “Waffle House Index.” This index is pretty ingenious—it relies on the open or closed status of the well-known diner chain in disaster-affected areas. 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 155 miles per hour (249 km/h), peaking out over the Atlantic Ocean as a Category 5 hurricane. "The delays are behind us and we are moving full steam ahead to complete the new restaurant in San Diego, shooting for a late-summer, early-fall opening," Sam White, financial and business advisor for Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles told NBC 7.
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He also investigated county animal shelters' euthanization rates and the struggles Florida felons face when re-entering society, stories that won a regional Hearst and Murrow award, respectively. In 2017, Ramsey was a USA Today College correspondent, where he reported on higher education news. "They were making coffee by pouring bottled water into the coffee maker, and they were serving breakfast with plastic plates and utensils because they couldn't wash anything," Fugate recalled.
Negotiations between protesters and Columbia University officials about clearing the encampment on its lawn that had been extended for 48 hours have been “unstable," said Esha Karam, managing director of Columbia Daily Spectator, citing student organizers. No protesters or officers have been reported injured, police said. The Los Angeles Police Department said 93 people were arrested on suspicion of trespassing during Wednesday's demonstrations at the University of Southern California. Read on to discover which states have the most Waffle Houses, and see how your home state compares to others across the country.
Waffle House is not the only business whose operations are measured to determine natural disaster impact, and FEMA does not formally use Waffle House closures to assess the scope of disasters. FEMA assesses the impact of natural disasters by measuring their interruption of multiple large national chains and informally references a "Waffle House Index." Waffle House responded to several other disasters this year before Irene hit. After a series of deadly tornadoes tore through Alabama and Georgia in late April, one restaurant was destroyed and another 20 were without power.
Hurricane Florence: How Waffle House Index helps FEMA assess storm - USA TODAY
Hurricane Florence: How Waffle House Index helps FEMA assess storm.
Posted: Thu, 13 Sep 2018 07:00:00 GMT [source]
It is an indicator of how complex and long supply chains are — for food, for fuel, for power — and of what it takes to plan around infrastructure that can be fragile in unexpected ways. Out in the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Matthew was hurling winds of 115 miles an hour toward the coast of Florida. Hundreds of miles inland, in the headquarters of Waffle House Inc., Stark’s software predicted that 477 of the chain’s almost 1,900 restaurants might be affected by the onrushing storm. Just ahead of Hurricane Idalia slamming into Florida's Big Bend Wednesday near Keaton Beach, five Waffle House restaurants were closed, Waffle House Vice President of Public Relations Njeri Boss told USA TODAY.
Negotiations at Columbia University unstable, organizers say
Waffle House Index: Restaurant closures show Hurricane Ida's strength - USA TODAY
Waffle House Index: Restaurant closures show Hurricane Ida's strength.
Posted: Sun, 29 Aug 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The overhead lights and walk-in freezer weren’t working, but the gas grill was. The cooks boiled water on the grill, then poured it through the coffee machine, over beans ground before the power went out. The district manager, Chris Barnes, handed employees copies of an emergency grill-only menu. The fare included ham-and-egg sandwiches for $3.15 and quarter-pound hamburgers for $2.70.
One story that is particularly uplifting is the exchange between chains Publix (from Florida) and H-E-B (from Texas) in that they have provided mutual support—Publix helped raise money for the Red Cross after Harvey and H-E-B sent supplies to Florida after Irma. Mr. Cato, 38, is still making his own music when he’s not onstage revving up the “Late Show” crowd. "He's [Herb] like, 'This is going to be the place for it.' And it's right outside of downtown. So we felt it would be a great location," Diane Vara, then Creative Director for Roscoe's House of Chicken ‘N Waffles told NBC 7 in 2022. Barrio Logan was chosen as a location by owner Herb Hudson, who toured various areas in San Diego including North Park. A GoFundMe has been set up in support of the family of the 74-year-old security guard, Rosalind, who was shot while working at the Waffle House.
People have opened their homes and their hearts to their fellow Americans in ways that are nothing short of absolutely inspiring. And of course, this is merely a snapshot of just some of the outstanding work that’s being done to help hurricane survivors across the southern parts of the country. More work is still being done and the outpouring of support continues.
Many of the supplies needed wouldn’t be able to get there without the help of private sector partners like FedEx which is working with several non-profits to help provide transportation support. For small towns, places like coffee shops and local restaurants are often the local hubs of activity. Just a cup of coffee, a bite to eat, or the chance to catch up with a neighbor can mean a lot to someone who may have lost everything.
According to several media reports the index ranges from green, to yellow, to red. Yellow means the restaurants are on a limited menu and lack resources. "They are open most of the time. And that was the index. If a Waffle House is closed because there's a disaster, it's bad. We call it red. If they're open but have a limited menu, that's yellow," he said. "If they're green, we're good, keep going. You haven't found the bad stuff yet." But that "always faithful, always there for you" restaurant chain that Anthony Bourdain admired so much was ready to serve the community.
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