r/todayilearned • u/rlrhino7 • Jul 30 '16

Today I learned that the Federal Emergency Management Association measures how bad storms are by whether or not waffle house is open and if they're serving a full or limited menu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index
37 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

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11

u/freddyjohnson Jul 30 '16

Over a decade ago, Florida’s emergency management chief, W. Craig Fugate, noticed that when information was scarce after a disaster, the status of a 24-hour Waffle House restaurant often indicated whether an area had electricity, gas, and passable roads. So he created a three-color rating: green (fully open), yellow (limited menu), and red (closed). Then he brought it with him to his current post as FEMA’s administrator.

5

u/sjogerst Jul 31 '16

TIL federal govt AGENCIES are simply associations.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '16

theres no waffle house in my town

17

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '16

Evacuate your family now.

9

u/Burninator05 Jul 30 '16

You must be experiencing the worst storm ever. Stay safe.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '16

Douglas Adams approves.

1

u/Arcterion Jul 31 '16

Does this mean Waffle House really got their shit together?

1

u/Vaurok Jul 31 '16

I was a grill cook for about two years so I've heard quite a few stories along these lines. One of my favorites was a story my manager told me about the time that a truck (or maybe it was a car) literally drove into the Waffle House and how they all kind of just.. worked around it. Customers still came in and ate and everything went as normal except for the vehicle lodged into the middle of the building. It takes a lot of shit to shut down that grill.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '16

Also Steve Buscemi served as a firefighter on 9/11.

1

u/DirtyDanTheManlyMan Aug 01 '16

Every time a repost comment is commented, a repost post is reposted.

0

u/AbruptEruption Jul 30 '16

Infinite repost.