Waffle House is closing Florida locations before Hurricane Milton hits

Waffle House has already started battening down the hatches, announcing the closure of several Florida restaurants ahead of Hurricane Milton’s predicted landfall.

The Category 5 storm remains “extremely dangerous” as it will make landfall in Florida, which is expected on Florida’s west coast on Wednesday evening. Milton is then expected to move east-northeast through Central Florida through Thursday, the National Hurricane Center told USA TODAY.

Millions of people across the region are scrambling to complete storm preparations or evacuate from vulnerable areas as Hurricane Milton heads toward the Florida Peninsula from the Gulf of Mexico. And Waffle House, a restaurant chain known for being open and serving breakfast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is no exception.

Waffle House announced the closures across Florida on Tuesday afternoon, urging residents to stay safe and follow local guidelines as information is subject to change without notice due to the potential variations in Milton’s path.

Waffle House spokeswoman Njeri Boss confirmed the restaurant closures in Florida to USA TODAY on Tuesday evening.

“As we explained during Hurricane Helene, our mission remains to keep our employees out of harm’s way. Accordingly, we will preemptively close restaurants in areas expected to be hardest hit, with the goal of reopening them as soon as it is safe to do so to serve the communities that have supported us over the years.”

Florida Waffle House closure is a ‘safety measure’

According to Waffle House, precautionary closures were imposed for safety reasons for locations in areas predicted to be “in the path of Hurricane Milton and likely to experience significant damage or where mandatory evacuations have been ordered.”

Waffle House staff will also follow local evacuation procedures.

According to the Waffle House Index, which is based on

What is the Waffle House Index?

The Waffle House Index, created by former Florida County Emergency Manager Craig Fugate, provides emergency responders and officials a way to learn where first responders and supplies can be deployed based on the ranking and labeling of Waffle House restaurants.

All Waffle House restaurants are ranked and labeled with one of three different colors – green, red or yellow to indicate conditions.

Green: Fully functional
Yellow: Limited menu
Red: Closed

When first responders arrive in an area and see an open Waffle House marked in green, they know the area is safe and can proceed to find others who need help. Yellow restaurants indicate a limited menu and relief workers have been dispatched to help. When first responders found a red-tagged Waffle House, urgent help was needed.

Fugate was quoted as saying, “When you get there and the Waffle House is closed, that’s really bad. That’s where you go to work.”

Hurricane Milton tracker

Hurricane Milton Spaghetti Models

The figures cover a range of forecasting tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center only uses the four or five best-performing models in its forecasts.

Hurricane Milton Live Stream

Contributor: Saleen Martin

This story has been updated to correct a typo.

Waffle House is closing Florida locations before Hurricane Milton hits

ByJasper

Florida Waffle House closure is a ‘safety measure’

What is the Waffle House Index?

Hurricane Milton tracker

Hurricane Milton Spaghetti Models

Hurricane Milton Live Stream

By Jasper

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