Waffle House is closing its Capital Circle Northwest location in Tallahassee as Hurricane Helene approaches, according to the Southern diner chain.
That leaves seven other Waffle Houses in the immediate area open for now, with the company’s “wait and see” attitude mentioned in previous reporting still holding.
The chain, normally open 24/7, closing a location is usually a harbinger of severe, even life-threatening weather in an area.
“Safety comes first,” a Waffle House representative told the Tallahassee Democrat in an interview Wednesday.
That person emphasized the importance of timely decisions, hoping not to be ‘too late’ as they monitor the storm to determine next steps and what support they can offer: “Customers in the field, our leaders in the field, they are the ones who make the final call.”
What’s the Waffle House Index?
Coined by Craig Fugate, nicknamed Florida’s “Master of Disasters” as its director of emergency management 2001-09, the ” Waffle House Index ,” a safety benchmark, is not only a crisis response signal for first responders but also an informal but reliable way communities gauge the severity of a disaster.