Hurricane Milton: Several Waffle House locations closed in advance of storm

Waffle House closed several diners in Florida even before Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall.

The company announced on Tuesday afternoon that it closed restaurants in the Tampa area, CBS News reported. The company expanded the list of restaurants temporarily closed on Wednesday morning.

Typically Waffle Houses are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, USA Today reported.

Tuesday afternoon - Tampa and Fort Meyers areas:

Wednesday morning - Tampa, Fort Meyers, Orlando, Ocala and Daytona:

“As we stated during Hurricane Helene, our mission remains to keep our Associates out of harm’s way. Accordingly, in areas predicted to be hardest hit, we will preemptively close restaurants with a goal of reopening them as soon as it is safe to do so to serve the communities that have there for us over the years,” company spokesperson Njeri Boss told USA Today.

The Waffle House Index, or when Waffle House locations are open during severe weather, can be an indication of how bad a storm will be.

The Associated Press reported if a Waffle House is open in the path of a storm, it is unlikely to cause devastation. If it is closed, then damage may be severe.

Waffle House has more than 1,900 locations, mostly in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic. Typically Waffle Houses are the only businesses open in a storm or one of the first to reopen when severe weather is over.

The maps are color-coded, with green meaning it is open with a full menu with minimal damage in the area.

Yellow means there is a limited menu. The location may be on a generator or has a low supply of food. There may not be water or electricity.

Red means a location is closed with unsafe conditions and destruction in the area.

The Waffle House Index stretches back to 2004 when former Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate was working for Florida’s emergency management agency an was looking for something to eat after Hurricane Charlie.

He found a Waffle House but it was only serving a limited menu. His team started seeing other Waffle Houses that were operating but in areas without power or water. It became a key feature on the map used by Fugate and his team to show where damage was most severe.

Fugate brought his map to FEMA under President Barack Obama when a tornado hit Joplin, Missouri in 2011. Both locations in Joplin stayed open.

“If you get there and the Waffle House is closed, that’s really bad. That’s where you go to work,” Fugate had said in the past, according to USA Today.

During Hurricane Katrina, seven Waffle Houses were destroyed and 100 were shut down, but when locations opened, the company saw business skyrocket, the AP reported. After that company officials decided to keep restaurants open during a disaster and invested in generators, a mobile command center and training for employees on what to prepare if a location loses power.

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