How the ‘Waffle House Index’ Shows the Impact of Hurricane Milton

It takes a lot for a Waffle House to close. If the “Waffle House Index” is flashing red ahead of an impending storm, you might want to think twice about staying put.

The “Waffle House Index” is an unofficial Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) metric, where closed restaurants suggest a need for serious disaster response.

Locations of the privately held Southern-based chain are normally open 24/7. In a 2015 episode of his CNN show “Parts Unknown,” the late chef and travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain called Waffle House “a beacon of hope and salvation, inviting the hungry, the lost, the seriously hammered all across the South to come inside.”

“If you get there and the Waffle House is closed?” then-FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate was quoted as saying in a 2011 Wall Street Journal article. “That’s really bad. That’s where you go to work.”

‘Waffle House Index’ Flashing Red in Florida as Hurricane Milton Approaches

Dozens of Waffle House locations in Florida, mostly in the Tampa area, were shut down ahead of Hurricane Milton, according to a Tuesday post on the company’s X account.

There are more than 1,900 Waffle House locations in 25 states, according to the company.

Milton Forecast To Bring ‘Destructive Storm Surge’ To Florida

Milton, currently a Category 4 storm, is expected to make landfall in the Tampa area on Wednesday night and bring a “destructive storm surge” and “life-threatening hurricane-force winds” to Florida, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm is projected by analysts to cause tens of billions of dollars of economic losses. Roughly a fifth of the gas stations in South Florida were out of gas on Wednesday morning, according to GasBuddy Founder Patrick De Haan. The Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, and SeaWorld Orlando theme parks on Tuesday announced they would temporarily be shutting down.

But not even Disney (DIS) has a FEMA metric named after it.

“It never closes, it is always, always faithful, always there for you,” Bourdain said of Waffle House. When it does close, you may want to get out of Dodge.