Because Waffle House is well prepared for disasters, Kouvelis said, it's rare for the index to hit red. When the location has been forced to close, the index is red. If it is open but serving from a limited menu, it's yellow. Craig Fugate, is based on the extent of operations and service at the restaurant following a storm and indicates how prepared a business is in case of a natural disaster.įor example, if a Waffle House store is open and offering a full menu, the index is green. The 'Waffle House Index,' first coined by Federal Emergency Management Agency Director W.

The restaurant chain is so widely respected for its severe weather preparedness that a former director of FEMA started using their stores as an indicator of how bad a particular storm or disaster was: Waffle House is prepared to make you breakfast at all hours of the day in any kind of weather.