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.
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Levels
The index has three levels, based on the extent of operations and service at the restaurant following a storm:
- GREEN: full menu - restaurant has power and damage is limited.
- 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.
Background
The term was coined 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 the reputation of the restaurant chain Waffle House 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. 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 a cut-down menu 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.
Example
On Thursday October 6, 2016, the index reached red when all Waffle House restaurants on Florida's I-95 between Titusville and Fort Pierce were closed. This index change was caused by Hurricane Matthew ravaging Caribbean islands and the east coast of the United States.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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