[Wash Examiner] As Florence sweeps over the Carolinas, one measure of a storm's severity is catching people's attention: the Waffle House Index.Of the company's 230 restaurants in the path of the tropical storm, 17 were closed Saturday, said a spokesman for the company, with nine others operating without power and seven more open and powered by generators.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's website says the index tests how a community is faring. Red is closed; yellow is open, but serving a limited menu; green is open and serving a full menu.
Spokesman Pat Warner, in an interview with Fox News, said the restaurant's status has become an indicator of how a community is faring after a storm.
"We're kind of an indicator how quickly the community is coming back after the storm. If we're open quickly, we know they're coming back or get back to a sense of normalcy. We take pride in being the canary in the coal mine, as we've been called," he said. "We've been called the Waffle House index, and we're pretty proud that people look to us to see if we're coming back."