Isaias is hammering Fort Walton/Destin/Pensacola right now. I'm watching Ryan Hall, who does a great weather channel on YouTube,
I shared texts with Termite, a frequent commenter and good personal friend, who is currently on an offshore rig riding it out. They couldn't leave the rig yesterday at shift change, so they are drawing overtime pay until the helicopters can get out to pick them up. Probably tomorrow. Termite is fine, eating well, and drawing overtime. Hopefully, he will drop by next week, drink a beer, and tell me all about it.
Interesting hurricane/natural disaster trivia.
ReplyDeleteThere is a real, informal metric known as the Waffle House Index. It is used to gauge the severity of a storm and the level of post-disaster misery or damage in a community.
The term was coined by Craig Fugate, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), during the 2004 hurricane season. Because Waffle House is notoriously resilient—holding extensive disaster management plans, backup generators, and limited-resource menus—its operational status provides an immediate snapshot of local conditions.
As Fugate famously noted regarding disaster response:
"If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That’s really bad. That’s where you go to work."
The index uses a simple, color-coded tracking system:
• 🟢 Green (Full Menu): The restaurant has power, sustained little to no damage, and is operating normally. This indicates that the community's infrastructure is largely intact.
• 🟡 Yellow (Limited Menu): The restaurant is running on emergency backup generators, has water issues, or is low on food supplies. This indicates a lack of commercial power or utility access in the surrounding area, signaling that mass care is required.
• 🔴 Red (Closed): The restaurant is completely shut down. Because Waffle House rarely closes, a red status signifies catastrophic destruction, flooding, or incredibly unsafe conditions.
This is part of what makes America so unique.
Pics/video from oil rig?
ReplyDeleteUnlike FEMA, Waffle House will bring bring in staff and supplies to keep the disaster-area WHs running. Semis with generators, tanks of propane, food, water, etc. Pretty impressive.
Someone complained on the internet (surprise!) that WH only does the support stuff in order to have a good public image. I'm sure the folks in the disaster area would reject the help if only they knew...
We got our FEMA aid six months after our flooding was over... No WH around here as we're too Yankee, unfortunately.
Last time I looked Sunday afternoon it was centered in Virginia. That’s 330 miles SW of me but it’s been raining hard in NJ since before dawn. We barely got a chance to dry off from the nor’easter that tore up all the beaches and brought a lot of rain to the Mid Atlantic coast. We don’t want this one either. Though the forecast is saying it will head out to sea soon and miss the Jersey Shore. Winds are puny now. 23mph
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