Fox News - Waffle House serves hungry customers bacon, eggs and hash browns, but when disaster strikes, the iconic chain serves up valuable intel to the government. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has developed an unofficial, color-coded "Waffle House Index" to help make assessments before sending response teams to areas hit by such natural disasters as tornadoes, floods or hurricanes. After a disaster, officials call a restaurant in the affected area, and ask what's on the menu. If the restaurant is serving everything, it means there is water and electricity and that the index is green. If the menu has been scaled back, the index is yellow, which means there's water but no power. In the rare event a Waffle House is completely shut down, the index is red and that usually means there's big trouble. “I guess our reputation has been that if we’re able to get back open, things might be bad, but they’re not horrible," said Walt Ehmer, chief operating officer of the 1,600-store chain. "But, if we don’t happen to be able to be doing business, then that must be a sign that the community is in really bad shape.
FEMA, are you frigen kidding me with this? The Waffle House Index? Get the fuck out. You're a government agency, you have to have better resources than this...
You know how I know the severity of a natural disaster? I turn on the fucking news! It's right there. Meanwhile we got FEMA acting like modern cable television doesn't exist calling up Waffle Houses and attempting to order up short stacks. This is mind blowing.
Not to mention that...it's the Waffle House! I'm pretty sure every weekend night there could be classified as a disaster area...Late night at a Waffle House is pretty much like downtown Baghdad if the internet is any indicator...pretty sure something like 67% of all World Star videos start in a Waffle House. Comedians have gotten rich on entire skits based around the gross, wild, and weird shit that goes down at the Waffle House after midnight. I'm not sure the government could have picked a more distressed target if they tried.
