Quote:
Originally Posted by mar dhea
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"The Waffle House Index is a metric named after the ubiquitous Southern US restaurant chain Waffle House known for its 24-hour, 365-day service. Since this restaurant always remains open, it has given rise to an informal but useful metric to determine the severity of a storm and the likely scale of assistance required for disaster recovery.[1][2] It was coined by former administrator Craig Fugate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).[3] The metric is unofficially[1][4] used by FEMA to inform disaster response.[5][6]"
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So suppose the Waffle House closes a branch due to something like a broken water main or HVAC, and it just happens to be in the path of a storm. So FEMA takes note and increases the threat level as a result. So then Waffle House says, "Gee Whiz, FEMA is saying it's a worse storm, so maybe we should close some locations." Then FEMA increases threat level yet again. And so on and so on. Eventually the entire country may be bracing for a storm that packs the punch of an atomic bomb!
