Hurricane Helene hits red on the Waffle House Index, Florida restaurants closed

Hurricane Helene has barreled down on Florida, with the extremely dangerous Category 4 storm making landfall on Thursday night. Those in its path are being instructed to shelter in place, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) advising communities to prepare for "catastrophic, life-threatening inland flooding" in areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina. 

In fact, Hurricane Helene is expected to be so bad that 24/7 breakfast stalwart Waffle House has closed several locations in its path. Though you really shouldn't try to go for waffles in the middle of a hurricane anyway.

Waffle House has reportedly closed all its locations in Tallahassee, battening down the hatches in preparation for Hurricane Helene. It has also closed Waffle House #2468 in neighbouring Crawfordville. This has put Hurricane Helene at a red on the Waffle House Index — the most severe rating on the restaurant-based disaster scale, and a strong indication that the community is likely to suffer significant damage.

"In areas predicted to be hit hardest hit [sic], we will preemptively close restaurants with a goal of reopening them as soon it is safe to do so, to serve communities that have been there for us over the years," Waffle House said in a statement to the Tallahassee Democrat.

Pictures of Waffle Houses that have been closed or boarded up are circulating on social media, with users widely acknowledging the sight as a portent of doom.

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Despite this, most of Tallahassee's Waffle House locations are still marked as open on the restaurant chain's official website. It's unclear whether this is because not all restaurants are being closed, or if the website simply hasn't been updated. It wouldn't be surprising if amending opening hours on the Waffle House website isn't a terribly high priority amidst a hurricane. Either way, now isn't really the best time for people in Florida to pop in for grits.

Mashable has reached out to Waffle House for comment.

What is the Waffle House Index?

In addition to its titular waffles, Waffle House is famous for serving its customers 24/7. The breakfast restaurant chain has stubbornly kept its locations open through tornadoes, blizzards, and hurricanes, albeit sometimes resorting to a limited menu.

This long-running practice has resulted in the Waffle House Index, an unconventional metric for determining the severity of a storm. Created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) former administrator Craig Fugate, the Waffle House Index offers an indicator of the damage to a neighbourhood.

"If a Waffle House can serve a full menu, they’ve likely got power (or are running on a generator)," FEMA wrote in a 2017 blog post. "A limited menu means an area may not have running water or electricity, but there’s gas for the stove to make bacon, eggs, and coffee: exactly what hungry, weary people need."

As such, an open, fully functional restaurant is a green on the Waffle House Index, meaning that the zone is more or less fine. A limited menu is yellow on the scale, indicating that the local area could use some assistance. The Waffle House Index hits red when a restaurant is closed, signifying that the local community needs significant help.

Fugate's metric is technically more suited to evaluating the damage after a storm than predicting its severity beforehand. Even so, the preemptive closure of Waffle House locations remains a decent indicator that something big is about to go down. It's also a visible, memorable sign of danger to the average American.

Judging by Waffle House's response to Hurricane Helene, those in its path should not take this storm lightly.