Using food as a measurement proxy is nothing new. For example, we have the Big Mac Index to measure purchasing power parity between two currencies.
But FEMA has let slip the newest edible index. Apparently, the disaster agency has coined the ‘Waffle House Index’ to guage a hurricane’s severity. This may be genius, but it’s political idiocy. If anything, it makes Bush-era FEMA leadership look that much better.
This seems lifted from The Onion but it’s not. According to the WSJ, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate uses a ‘Waffle House Index’ to help him determine how destructive a hurricane has been to an area. If a Waffle House is closed, you’re probably screwed.
Specifically, in Fugate’s interpretation:
“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.”
This is real life, people! If the Waffle House is closed get the hell out of Dodge. Or as Fugate puts it, “If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That’s really bad. That’s where you go to work.” (FEMA has to save lives and stuff). In fact, the Waffle House has a “hurricane playbook” that details how to re-open a restaurant and what to serve given the equipment they have.
Neil Rosekrans is a founder and partner of StateBrief.com. He has been a guest political commentator for the Arizona Law Channel, NBC's Sunday Square Off and The Terry Gilberg Show on KFYI. Neil earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and earned his MBA and Masters in Public Policy, with an emphasis in International Relations, from Pepperdine University.
Neil and his wife, Beth, live in Scottsdale, Arizona. 
