ORLANDO, Fla. – Waffle House restaurants in Florida are closing as Hurricane Milton approaches the state’s Gulf Coast.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the breakfast restaurant chain announced that it would be closing some of its breakfast restaurants in Tampa and Fort Myers, two areas likely to be affected by Hurricane Milton.

According to the post, at least 25 restaurants in Tampa and eight in the Fort Myers area should close. Others were open in both areas, according to Waffle House’s update at 2 p.m.

Closing during a hurricane, especially if it is expected to be dangerous and destructive, is not uncommon. Florida schools, government offices, theme parks and grocery stores in Central Florida closed before Milton.

Restaurants on the east side of Florida remained open on X, according to this post.

The “Waffle House Index” during hurricane season

Have you heard of the “Waffle House Index”? Yes, it’s real, and it’s one of the ways FEMA and government officials use to estimate the potential destructiveness of a hurricane.

Waffle House is apparently known for staying open during severe weather and quickly reopening when severe weather forces a restaurant to close.

The index uses a traffic light approach – green, yellow and red.

• Green means Waffle House is serving a full menu, signaling the restaurant is open, has power and has people.
• Yellow means the restaurant is open with a limited menu, which may indicate that the restaurant is running on a generator or is running low on supplies.
• Red means the restaurant is closed, indicating that the weather is so bad that the restaurant cannot operate or it is too dangerous to operate.

According to its website, Waffle House has 1,600 restaurants “from the Mid-Atlantic to Florida and throughout the Gulf Coast,” making it particularly vulnerable to hurricanes.

In its own contribution to the story, FEMA said whether a business is open or closed can provide insight into the impact a hurricane might have on a small community.

“Community businesses are often among the biggest drivers of recovery. When businesses can open, people can go back to work. When people can go back to work, they can return to at least some part of a normal life – and so little.” A little bit of normality can make a big difference.

“If a store like a Home Depot or a Lowe’s or your local hardware store can open, that means people can get the supplies they need to rebuild, clean up the mess and move forward toward recovery.” FEMA said in a 2017 statement blog post.