My scattered, smothered, and covered heart has been intrigued by the idea of the Waffle House Index (WHI) every since I first heard of such a metric. Internet lore is that the WHI is a metric used by FEMA to determine the impact of storm, either tornado or hurricane, for planning disaster recovery. The gist is that Waffle Houses are prevalent in these areas where these tornados and hurricanes frequent (~1600, see map below), typically open 24 hours a day, and because a functioning Waffle House requires electricity, water, and supply lines a decent metric for the state of affairs.
Supposedly, there are three levels
- Green: the restaurant is serving a full menu, indicating the restaurant has power and damage is limited.
- Yellow: the restaurant is serving a limited menu, indicating there may be no power or only power from a generator or food supplies may be low
- Red: the restaurant is closed, indicating severe damage.
So how did this come about? FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate stated in the wake of Joplin Missouri tornado in 2011. “If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That’s really bad. That’s where you go to work.” The levels above, I can only attribute to Panos Kouvelis, PhD, the Emerson Distinguished Professor of Operations and Manufacturing Management and director of the Olin’s Boeing Center for Technology, Information, and Manufacturing. “If the Waffle House is open and serving food and has a full menu, then the index is green. If it is open but has a limited menu, it’s yellow. If it isn’t open, that’s red.” According to Insurance Journal, Kouvelis teaches the WHI in his classes.
But a teaching tool is a far cry from an implemented metric FEMA uses to assess a situation. The only mention of Waffle House on the entire FEMA website is the a guest post by Walt Ehmer, president of Waffle House, on his chain’s ability to respond to emergencies (which apparently they excel at). In addition, the FEMA website outlinks to the discussion of Kouvelis using WHI as a classroom index.
I am convinced that the WHI and it usage FEMA are overblown. My multiple inquiries into FEMA were met with “What is the Waffle House Index?” When I spoke with someone in the FEMA communications group who was aware of WHI, they stated clearly this was anecdote. So WHI has went from a simple anecdote for the media by Craig Fugate to a classroom tool by Kouvelis to examine and illustrate emergency responses. At no point as FEMA used a Waffle House Index during an emergency to assess the state of affairs.
However, it is notable that FEMA does work with the private sector during emergencies through the National Business Emergency Operations Center. In this virtual organization, FEMA both collects data from the private sector in the impacted area to assess their “resources, capabilities, and expertise to bear during the disaster response” and “to determine impacts on their ability to provide services to the public.” So maybe FEMA does assess, has part of larger data collecting effort, in these times of need whether the Waffle House actually houses waffles.
