By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-09-27 18:00:43 | Updated at 2024-09-30 13:28:10
2 days ago
After Hurricane Helene made landfall in northwestern Florida, a single photo of a boarded-up Waffle House has been declared the 'most terrifying image on the internet.'
The chain, whose restaurants are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is famous for staying open during many natural disasters, with the so-called 'Waffle House index' a metric used to measure the severity and damage caused by a storm.
Pictures posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, show restaurants around Tallahassee, Florida, boarded up, with the neon yellow sign still glowing, lighting up the deserted carpark and wet surroundings.
The Waffle House index was coined by Craig Fugate in 2011 after the Joplin tornado in Missouri. Fugate was the FEMA Administrator at the time.
'If you get there and the Waffle House is closed, that's really bad. That's where you go to work,' he said, surmising the index.
As Hurricane Helene prepares to make landfall in northwestern Florida, a single photo of a boarded-up Waffle House in Crawfordville has been declared the 'most terrifying image'
What does the Waffle House index mean?
GREEN: Restaurant is serving a full menu indicating there is minimal or no power and damage
YELLOW: There is a limited menu available and power is from a generator. Could indicate low food supplies
RED: Restaurant is closed - indicates severe storms
The index is an informal measure of a storm's severity and its effect on the impacted community by measuring how many Waffle House restaurants stay open, or what menu items are still being served during storms.
According to the restaurant chain's website, green means the restaurant is serving a full menu, a signal that damage in an area is limited and the lights are on.
Yellow means a limited menu, indicating power from a generator, at best, and low food supplies.
Red means the restaurant is closed, a sign of severe damage in the area or unsafe conditions, which is indicated in the current index.
Helene was classified as a Category 4 storm overnight with forecasters warning residents across the southeast to brace for a 'nightmare.'
In Crawfordville, where the viral image of one of the chain's restaurants is located, alarmed residents were preparing to bunker down as the storm hit and called the snap the 'most terrifying image' of the storm.
The eerie images show wooden boards covering the windows of the restaurant, with the usually busy chain completely empty.
'Helene about to start some MAJOR s**t in Florida,' the caption accompanying the image read. 'The Waffle House index has never lied, and this is the most terrifying image on the internet today. IYKYK,' another shared.
'The Waffle House scale stops at closed...new scale limit reached: Waffle House boarded up,' one concerned user posted.
The index is an informal measure of a storm's severity and its effect on the impacted community
At the time of writing, Hurricane Helene has hit southeast America, with US authorities warning people they could drown in their homes if they didn't heed evacuation alerts.
Parts of Florida and Georgia face 'unsurvivable' conditions due to the risk of 'storm surges,' a weather event described as a 'wall of water.'
Helene had already spurred warnings and several states of emergencies, not only Florida, but all the way to Georgia and the Carolinas. More than 60 million Americans in 12 states are under some form of advisory.
Floridians who did not evacuate ahead of Hurricane Helene posted horrifying footage through the night as the storm battered their homes.
The hurricane is now barreling through Georgia after making landfall in Florida - leaving six people dead and more than three million without power across several states.
The storm was updated to Category 4 on Thursday evening, and hit the state's Big Bend region just after 11pm.
Florida is now seeing storm surges of up to 20 feet and winds well more than 100mph.
