The Waffle House Index is an informal metric used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to determine the effect of a storm and the likely scale of assistance required for disaster recovery. The measure is based on the reputation of the Waffle House restaurant chain 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 term was coined by FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate in May 2011, following the 2011 Joplin tornado.

Waffle House won’t close unless it’s absolutely necessary. Two locations in Joplin, Missouri stayed open even as a multiple-vortex EF5 tornado struck the city.

Waffle House Index:

Green – The situation is relatively normal.

Yellow – The restaurant is serving a limited menu, and may be operating with a generator and/or limited food reserves.

Red – The restaurant is closed. This typically happens only if structural damage is severe or food reserves have run out.

Waffle House is a leader in disaster preparedness. It maintains its own fleet of portable generators, operates a mobile command center to assist in disaster recovery, and trains employees in crisis management to ensure that it can resume operations as quickly as possible—often within hours. Since 2012, it reports all this info directly to FEMA via email.

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