Hurricane Milton is approaching central Florida and is expected to make landfall late Wednesday. Floridians are monitoring the Waffle House Index for impacts to their area as the storm moves through and the recovery process begins.

Waffle House, a popular restaurant chain with many locations from the Mid-Atlantic to Florida and the Gulf Coast, serves a region prone to hurricanes and other severe weather events. Therefore, Waffle House has prioritized trying to reopen as quickly as possible after disasters and the Waffle House Index was developed as an indicator of a storm’s impact on a specific area.

Hurricane Milton, classified as a Category 4 hurricane as of Wednesday afternoon, is expected to make landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast, bringing “life-threatening” storm surges and strong winds. It will then run through central Florida to the state’s Atlantic coast.

As of 2 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday, the Waffle House Index showed closures across Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg and Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast. Across Central Florida, closures were reported in the Orlando, Ocala and Daytona areas – but Waffle Houses in the Miami and Gainesville areas remained open.

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Njeri Boss, vice president of food safety and public relations at Waffle House, told FOX Business in a statement: “Our mission remains to keep our employees out of harm’s way. Accordingly, we are preemptively closing restaurants in areas expected to be hardest hit with a goal of reopening them as soon as it is safe to do so to serve the communities that have supported us over the years.”

“Sites in areas predicted to be in the storm’s catchment area and likely to experience significant damage, or where mandatory evacuations have been ordered, are locations subject to preventive closures for safety reasons.”

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Founded in Georgia in 1955, Waffle House now has more than 1,900 locations in 25 states. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

What the Waffle House Index means

There are three levels in the Waffle House Index, which correspond to the level of service available at a particular restaurant and can also provide insight into the extent of the damage and whether power is online in the area.

Green indicates that the Waffle House is serving a full menu, meaning the restaurant has power and sustained minimal or no damage.

Yellow means Waffle House’s menu is limited because the restaurant has either lost power or is running on generator power, or is running low on food supplies.

Red indicates the restaurant is closed. This may be due to evacuation orders in advance of the storm or severe damage from the storm and unsafe conditions.

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The Waffle House Index was developed in 2011. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via / Getty Images)

The Waffle House Index was launched in 2011 by Craig Fugate, then administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), after a devastating tornado hit Joplin, Missouri, leaving two of the chain’s locations open.

“When you get there and the Waffle House is closed? This is really bad. That’s where you go to work,” Fugate said of the Waffle House Index as an indicator of damage from a natural disaster.

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