FEMA tracks Waffle House more because they (as a corporation) have excellent disaster preparedness, with on-site backup generators, contingency plans out the wazoo, they will pre-position ice and food supplies ahead of storms to provide when supply chains are cut, they will have ‘jump teams’ of staff with supplies to come in after an emergency or disaster so that local workers can focus on their own families and homes, in general they (along with Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowe’s) are the businesses best prepared to weather a storm or disaster, and be ready to provide in the immediate aftermath.
@@edopronk1303 At the end of the day, anything any corporation does is "for profit". For Waffle House, being the sole restaurant open ensures sales during those time, and being the "place that WILL be open or will open up the soonest" is a brand they have built that means people know where to go when they are hungry during a major incident. And, making people know that while the business is open, the staff are going to be able to take care of their own affairs means they are more willing to work there.
@@edopronk1303 good question! My guess is that management sees it as investing in brand identity and loyalty, like, if people know that Waffle House was there in the difficult times, they will be even more loyal the rest of the time. No idea if it really works, or even if that’s the reason…
@@OriginalWarwood It's owned by the same family that owns FedEx. It's seen as a point of pride. Packages will get where they are going on time, period. Waffle House will be open, period. And as the same family are the majority owners in both it means Waffle House can skim off of FedEx's logistics network to make it happen. FedEx is going to be contracted by the US government to airlift supplies directly after the Hurricane anyway simply by the size and breadth of their logistics network, so they just toss a couple pallets of their own on a plane or two.
McDonalds has waterproof stores in flood prone areas. They are able to set the doors to a water tight mode and completely submerge. The only thing needed to be done to get the restaurant back up and running is to hose it off.
I now invision them jumping out of a aircraft like paratroopers. only they have giant waffle shaped parachutes. geared to the teeth with everything a kitchen/front of restaurant needs.
I knew this off the bat because I grew up in Virginia Beach. And during hurricane season, Waffle Houses were a God send. Your neighborhood blacked out and you've grilled every thing that could be grilled and you still need to eat? Hit the Waffle House. (7-11s were also a good backup too.) Get some waffles. Get out of the humidity and heat. Feel a little bit of civilized security. Because no matter how bad it seemed the Waffle House was still opened. As many hurricane seasons as I've lived through, I can't remember a time where the Waffle Houses where I was were closed.
Same, in Louisiana on the other side of the state, only time it shut down was due to Laura when a pizza hut was thrown across the street and destroyed the building.
@@nathanielhill8156 😂😂 that must have been a sight to see. I live on the Northshore, and Katrina didn't really hit us that hard. We were out of power for a week and cable for a month. Now IDA? We got ravaged. Still haven't fully cleared out all of those trees🤣
They built a Waffle House about 1/4 mile from me in Virginia Beach about 10 years ago, just down from a fire station. And we’re on the same substation as a hospital. One of the safest areas of the city!
I recently did some research work with FEMA and the National Hurricane Center. Out of curiosity, I asked about the Waffle House index. It is 100% a joke and not used for anything serious at all, and I was told that it was "an office joke that the public found out about". But, it turns out that FEMA does actually look up to certain companies like Waffle House, Home Depot, and Walmart because of their disaster preparedness plans. These places go above and beyond when it comes to disaster preparedness, with Waffle House being the most resilient overall.
The way I always understood it, normally, FEMA uses their own resources to check in areas. If they need a quick check up and they don't have resources in that area and are unable to spare resources, they have been known to call local companies just to get general information on the area. Businesses like Waffle House, Home Depot and Walmart usually have really strong contingency plans. Because of that they make good choices on companies to call when searching for information.
When you know people who've been cogs in the machine (mostly linemen)... the overwhelming sense is that there's some metric at play involving Waffle House/Walmart because I have definitely heard from linemen friends that "If Waffle House isn't open, we aren't gettin' through to do our job either." because if Waffle House isn't open, its usually because there's large scale infrastructure damage or large scale flooding or both. And I use linemen as an example because unlike NG, they aren't using boats or choppers to get to where they need to be... they've got their service trucks, and that's it. And they absolutely do stay in touch with major corporations who have communications with their "troops on the ground" that were already on the ground prior to the disaster to get a beat on what's going on in a specific area since FEMA gets stretched painfully thin during a multi state-high magnitude disaster... not to mention the few times FEMA has been split between disasters because of course hurricane and blizzard season overlap and tornado and wildfire seasons overlap.
Yes this is an interesting fact, but the real way Waffle House saves lives is by being open 24/7 in the winter, and letting anyone with enough change for a cup of coffee hang out in a heated building all night regardless of hygiene. A lot of these stores exist in places where shelters do not.
@@atmega16a5 It's actually deceptively unwholesome. Nobody should be in a position to need to buy a cup of coffee in order to survive through the night.
@@uzetaab I have been at many Waffle Houses, while I was hitchhiking up and down the East coast, of the United States, and they never turned me away for not having money. If I had coffee money, I was glad to be warming up with that coffee, but even when I was dead broke, and in need of an hour or two of shelter and warmth, they always let me come in to rest. Many times, if it was very late at night, they even offered me a free cup of coffee. It is sad when people are out in the cold by no choice of their own, but we are fortunate to have a place to go, whether that is a choice made by the person in need of a warm place, or not.
FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, tracks how things are going at Waffle house. Waffle has 3 operating conditions: Normal, Limited menu, and closed. Under normal circumstances, Waffle Houses never close. Waffle House goes to limited menu when supplies or people have problems getting to stores. They even have car pools systems setup for employees to help get other employees to work in case of flooding, downed power lines, storms, etc.
Son I have seen more fist and guns fights in a IHOP (mostly Houston Area) than any Waffle House I have ever been to. And I use to drive 250k miles year all over the south and south east. The IHOP's in Houston at 0300-0400 are a wild and crazy place.
@@TdrSld As a trucker, I'm curious how you were able to get 250k per year. If I have a year with long miles, plenty of fast drop n hook, and few FUBAR situations, I count 175k as very good year, and 200k as essentially perfect (never made it that high, or even into the 190s)
This was the first Lateral question I listened to on the podcast where I was not only confident in the answer, but I even managed to guess the question that was about to be asked right when I heard "Waffle House"
An interesting story about Waffle House happened a few years ago in the Carolinas when there was severe flooding. Areas were put under evacuation orders, which meant that the Waffle Houses in those areas had to close. Some of those store managers had problems shutting down because they couldn't find the keys to the doors ... they hadn't locked them in years.
Imagine being so used to the fact that your store is near-guaranteed to always be open to the point you forget the keys when you finally get the signal to close for a while.
The sheer duality of emotions I have tied to Waffle House is unlike any other brand in my life. It was the place I would go to after doing regrettable things to my soul and my liver, but it was also the place I would do to after hurricanes. There is something so comforting about the sheer normalacy of eating a decidedly mid breakfast after seeing that the house you lived in for years was just kinda poof gone.
I was living in Lakeland, FL during Hurricane Irma. The Waffle House was open, despite the lack of electricity, and cooking with a limited menu. They had employees and managers from Atlanta running the place while the local employees were off taking care of their business. I had read about the Waffle House Index 20 years ago in the WSJ and this was the first time I had experienced it. Likewise, there was a local Chinese restaurant that would be open after storms. I once ventured out right after a hurricane had passed and they were already open. It was almost like they hadn't closed.
If you live in the south US, odds are very high you live within a couple miles of a WH. The 4 near me are 1.3mi (2km; 30 minute walk), 2.4mi (3.8km), 3.1mi(5km) and 4.2mi(6.5km) away.
The Waffle House has found its new host. Fun fact, the guy whose commenters came up with that did an informational short before the one that created the meme, detailing the Waffle House Index as a way of emphasizing just how metal Waffle Houses are.
I was just yelling in my head the whole video "It's an Index of how bad a Natural Disaster is or will be". I lived in Florida my whole life and I use the Waffle House Index to decide whether to evacuate or not. If a Waffle House near me closes before a Hurricane it is time to GTFO of town.
Waffle House is probably the ideal metric in the US for how well "extremely well prepared private entities" are responding to the disaster. If Waffle House is open, then civilian pre-emptive measures are still functional and sufficient for the disaster. If Waffle House is closed, then it can be assumed any private entity, regardless of their own preparation and precautions, is severely impacted and cannot be expected to function without aid.
To be fair, Waffle houses are not high end establishments. Most of them are a bit dirty and outdated. However, in more than one occasion, the Waffle House has been my only option for clean water and hot food, and I respect them for fully committing to the bit.
The Waffle House index is a standard local news story after every hurricane. And if the hurricane is Really Bad, they interview the owner of the Waffle House that closed! And he always tells the same story. "It's been decades since we locked the front doors. No one remembered where we kept the keys, so we had to rig up chains across the doors." Since Waffle Houses don't close and are in poorer neighborhoods, they tend to hire people that can handle themselves in a fight. Such as fights that start after 2AM after the bars close. Popeye's fried chicken also tends to hire from that same employee pool. So the question is, who would win in a fight between Waffle House and Popeye's employees?
I've been finding the waffle house jokes a bit strange because there is one independent restaurant near me (St Albans, UK) called the Waffle House that's far posher than the American ones, it's been the subject of a planning battle due to them putting up a large gazebo in front of a listed building.
@@lordrosemount waffle house is the only restaurant open 24/7 in a lot of places, so they end up attracting a certain 3am-4am crowd who get into fistfights and the employees are ready for it
Another fun fact about Waffle House is even the executives--the C-suite--are expected to WORK THE KITCHENS in disaster situations in order to keep operations intact. This means that the local employees, who are likely dealing with their own direct impact from said disaster, don't have to contend with working their shift. Waffle House will send in their disaster jump teams and regional management/admin staff, up to and including people who typically commute from the back seat of a 200k luxury car.
Attended a military exchange exercise on the Florida panhandle, think it was in '97, there was a Waffle House just down the road from where we were staying. Walked there a few times in the couple of weeks we were there for, loved the chicken sandwich (fried chicken breast flattened on the hotplate, served in a burger bun) and had a huge waffle for dessert. If they opened the chain over here and kept the same menu, I'd be dead from coronary failure within a year.
I feel like the truck stop thing really threw them off. Waffle House is, generally speaking, not a truck stop, just a diner. There may be one or two that are truck stops, but most of them are just free standing restaurants.
Waffle house is like the crack house of restaurants. And the fact that "the waffle house index" exists, and the disaster preparedness of waffle house is honestly the funniest thing to me
We southerners use the Waffle House Index as an indicator for when you should evacuate. You see a storm heading your way, and you hear that Waffle Houses are CLOSING, YOU GET OUTTA THERE.
Lots of big name chefs LOVE waffle house (Sean Brock of Husk famously), and they are actually an alternative path to a culinary school degree - they will pay for you to train with them and the hours/pay is relatively good. There are chefs at the top restaurants in the world (Noma etc) who attribute their success to waffle house - they couldn't afford culinary school, and waffle house teaches you more than how to cook - how to manage a business, ordering ingredients, maintenance, etc. And besides the waffle house index - the value in a catastrophe of a restaurant capable of serving food & coffee is genuinely important mentally, emotionally, and just for nutrition. And for people who work nights, the houseless, or truck drivers its a cheap always available piece of civilization. I love waffle house unironically despite not caring one bit about the food.
As an American I'm sitting here screaming at my screen it's "hurricanes or blizzards come on guys!" But I was thinking it was the NWS and not FEMA but oh well
I was stuck in an ice/snow storm in Atlanta years ago. After sitting in stopped traffic for hours, I got out of traffic and went the opposite way. I was able to stop at a WH and get breakfast at 3AM before I continued creeping home a different way.
I work in the trucking industry and based in Nashville, TN.USA and I've never known Waffle House to be considered a truck stop. They don't have truck parking, they don't sell fuel or truck supplies. You couldn't be more wrong on this one.
When I was a student at Louisiana Tech, there was a large tornado that tore up the city of Ruston and much of our campus. Waffle house was still serving and we walked from our dorm to it through all the wreckage. It had no power so it was at yellow, but we were still served eggs and such and could only pay in cash.
A fan from Florida here. The Waffle House index and reports from Walmart do, indeed, guide FEMA and others with regards to hurricane conditions. Some points that are missed: Most waffle houses are on major roads that are evacuation routes towards the major interstate highways. Thus they do a lot of business if people are evacuating, but when the storm comes through, they do very little business and, if destruction is bad, may need to close. A key metric is how quickly a Waffle House re-opens after a hurricane passes. If it re-opens quickly, then roads are clear. If not, they are blocked or flooded. And they can be a quick guide to power outages on key routes, as well, depending on whether they are running on their own emergency generators or if the power grid is providing power. Meanwhile, Walmart has a sophisticated supply chain management system that will detect excess demans before and after a hurricane indicating what supplies are most needed.
I have eaten in a Waffle House after a hurricane they had no electricity and could serve pretty much everything except waffles. The grills are gas powered and the waffle irons are electric.
It's not a Waffle House, it's a Waffle Home. No matter how poorly life has gone for you, through ups and downs, you're always welcome in one. But if the Waffle House is closed, you should have been gone much longer before. Also, Waffle House hits different when you are, how shall I say, inebriated.
Since the pandemic this information is all wrong. Many waffle houses nowadays are understaffed, run short shifts, or are closed in the afternoons evenings or overnight. And you know never know which of the stores are going to have these problems and be closed. So now they're completely unreliable.
"A hurricane, fine, no problem. We can work with that. Retaining staff that has options and might go to work elsewhere if we're not treating them right? No can do."
@@christafranken9170 Totally. It's a management problem, not an issue with employees. If you have three stores on a three mile stretch of road and you're short staffed, set one as the designated 24 hour store and let customers know. There are more (12ish) WHs within 10 miles of me than there are McDs and yet I couldn't tell you which ones will be open after 9 or 10pm.
Not disagreeing. Ours was closed for a few weeks during the lockdowns, but has been open ever since. I can't say they haven't closed due to staffing but as far as I know, they haven't. The Denny's just down the street never did re-open for overnights and closed for good a week or so ago.
2016 Baton Rouge flood. We were dry, but surrounded by floodwater and without electricity. No one was open, except for the one gas station where the owner slept in the back. After days of eating cold sandwiches, we waded out the two miles to the Waffle House which was open. I have no idea how their employees made it to work, but I was so thankful for the hot food.
I'm sorry, but i wasn't able to get the "Can i please get a waffle" vine out of my head the entire video lmao I was like, "are they indexing how likely is it for crime to happen in a certain establishment?"
This was by a long way my least favourite episode. Mehdi didn't even know what his own question was about, let alone the others. If it's not your question, it's fair enough you have to figure it out, but at least put in the effort of knowing what your own question is
1:07 if anyone's wondering what that thing is on her arm, it's a CGM (Constant Glucose Monitor). Kinda cool to see one in a vid completely unprompted, I literally just changed mine an hour ago :D
Waffle House does not have a great reputation for most people. But I have no class and I love my fried egg breakfasts. 3 eggs over medium, grits, bacon, white toast and sweet tea. It is consistent there and rather quick. It can be crowded from 9-12 am and pm, but is a nice place to go in the middle of the night. I find comfort in them. And when the storm has everything else closed, Waffle House becomes a Waffle Home.
Truck driver here most Waffle Houses don’t have truck parking and are not part of truck stops but there are plenty near enough to them! For example Kenly 95 off of I95 has a Waffle House across the street I walked to last time I stayed the night there
Back in 2017 or 18 I lived in Charleston, South Carolina and there was a freak snowstorm. The area essentially shut down, but not Waffle House. Waffle House was still open
You know when this came up in a Sam O Nella video all those years ago, I couldn't be certain if he was joking or not. What a way to find out that it's true...
AAARGH im Australian, have never seen a waffle house and immediately knew this - FEMA tracks the number of waffle houses that close down to track the severity of storm impact - waffle house is the last place to shut normally. edit - Calling some one 'like a waffle house' is definitely insulting - in the time they are open they are also renowned for drunk fights and staff who can hold their own XD
Love me some waffle house. They'll run their stuff on generators and bottled propane if they need to. They only closed during COVID because they were required to through governmental force majeure. And the nanosecond they were allowed to open again, they were cranking out the food again. I don't think they've ever had all of them closed at the same time. Even during the 'Rona, there were at least a couple that were in localities that were lagging or leading the panic closures of each other.
Waffle House is not a truck-stop. While they're at every interstate exit in the Southern US, so it is understandable that people would think that, they don't (as far as I can tell) have parking reserved for tractor-trailers.
Starting with 'F' actually does narrow things down pretty well-most US federal agencies don't. There are only about a half-dozen that you'd expect an average American to've heard of.
I think the major derail (aside from the collective not having any knowledge of this 'pancake house') was not correcting that it is a diner, not a truck stop.
I knew this one from somewhere else. Also, by the way, regarding the Korean age system, as far as I know, South Korea has scrapped their traditional age system because it wasn't worth the hassle. It caused issues when, for instance, Koreans would go abroad to study and all that. Good. It was a very silly system that made zero sense.
There is a mistake in the podcast. Spoiler Warning! Hello Kitty's height is 5 apples, not two. So it should have been Granny Smith (1), Smurf (3), Hello Kitty (5)
See, I knew this one. But that's only because natural disaster politics fascinate me, and so I've found articles on this particular phenomenon, which, by the way, is actually kind of tongue-in-cheek in nature - FEMA isn't directly polling Waffle House locations to ascertain their status. Tom, in pointing out SE USA was a major clue, made it easier than it should've been. This is such an obscure thing that if he had let them flounder (or not defined the Waffle House's purvue), it would've taken a lot longer to solve.
The fact they don't understand what a waffle house is makes this some much harder. Ones that know waffle houses are basically never closed would have helped them get this sooner.
My family home is in Connecticut, but I live in Mississippi when I go to see my Dad I find Waffle Houses all up in Pennsylvania . I do love to stop in and get an All Star meal but like a lot of places they jacked the price up from 7.25 with coffee to 10.75 coffee separate. Oh well I still go just no where near as much.
This has always given Jim Cantori vibes. IYKYK... but for those that don't. If he shows up in your town and you haven't evacuated or stockpiled yet, you're probably borked. Weather Channel only sends him to the worst areas... hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards... if he shows up, you're in for it.
Waffle House is a great place to eat if you want hash browns at 2 am served by someone who will tell you a horrifying story about their life as if it's just day to day business, and sometimes you get to watch a fight.
In Kansas City, Waffle Houses aren't as reliably open as claimed in this video. When I wanted to go to one, it was closed. Maybe it was because of the pandemic. I don't know. BTW, Tom must be running out of ideas for videos.
And for anyone wanting a really good rep of what WH is like, search "Anthony Bourdain Waffle House" - he did an episode where Sean Brock took him and the voice over is peak Bourdain poetry.
Watching this knowing the answer was frustrating! I forget that the rest of the world doesn't know about WH because the rest of the world does get slammed with natural disasters (often) The resiliency of Waffle Houses is so legendary that yes; it is used a metric for assessing the scale of damage to an impacted area. It's become a meme over time but it's always been that way. I've heard of and witnessed legendary employees that braved ruined landscapes to make it to work and serve the community. God speed, you greasy bastards.
Joke or not, Florida actually consults the big grocery store chains to find out what ones are open and what ones are closed so they know where best to set up emergency distribution sites. If stores are open, they don't need to send in emergency supplies to those locations. If the stores are closed, that means they are down from a storm and that's where help is needed. Those chains supply valuable, almost real time disaster situation information not obtainable from other sources. But it is no joke if a Waffle House closes. That means its going to be a bad storm and get out! Another side point, one of the interview questions prospective employees are asked is if they can fight.
