The next morning, Fugate and his crew noticed a different Waffle House near their hotel had reopened. 'But it was a hot breakfast,' Fugate said. The power had gone out, rendering some of the products in the freezer unusable. However, the restaurant only had a partial menu.

So, Fugate and his crew drove south along the interstate until they came across a Waffle House that was open for business. 'We wanted to get something to eat because the day would be packed and didn't know when we'd get to eat again,' said Fugate, describing their search for breakfast one morning after the storm. State officials and meteorologists joined Fugate to inspect the damage-stricken region in the days after Charley. The Category 4 storm made landfall near Fort Myers, causing catastrophic damage for a storm that was relatively small in size compared to other hurricanes. He spoke to Newsweek on Thursday to tell the story of how a morning ritual and a casual observation turned into a nationwide indicator used by the government and millions of people to assess storm damage.Īs the man who once ran Florida's Division of Emergency Management, Fugate's job took him to southwest Florida in 2004 to survey the destruction left by Hurricane Charley. Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate is the man behind the infamous Waffle House Index. Yes, #FEMA really does have a ' #WaffleHouse Index” for #hurricanes /xHRHIcg3rH- MuckRock September 12, 2018īut the birth of the unusual storm indicator was not on purpose. FEMA offers live tracking to show which of the chain's restaurants have closed and which remain open, a feature that will undoubtedly be looked at by East Coast residents in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Florence. Waffle House is home to one of the most well-known unofficial indicators used by FEMA to measure the severity of natural disasters: The 'Waffle House Index.' The restaurant chain even has a 'Waffle House News' Twitter account and a Waffle House Storm Center. It is always faithful, always there for you.'

It's warm, yellow glow, a beacon of hope and salvation, inviting the hungry, the lost, the seriously hammered all across the south to come inside. 'Where everybody, regardless of race, creed, color or degree of inebriation, is welcomed. An irony-free zone where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts,' Bourdain once said. The late Anthony Bourdain, of CNN, perhaps had the best description of the diner-like restaurant chain that serves hot meals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The lights that never seem to dim, even as hurricanes and natural catastrophes bare down on the communities around them.

Waffle house menu and prices 2018