'Waffle House Index' shows Florida closures as Hurricane Milton approaches
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., discusses the potential impact of Hurricane Milton after Tampa's mayor told residents to evacuate on 'Varney & Co.'
Hurricane Milton is approaching central Florida, with the powerful storm due to make landfall late Wednesday, and it has Floridians monitoring the «Waffle House Index» for impacts to their area as the storm moves through and the recovery process begins.
Waffle House, a popular restaurant chain that has many locations in the mid-Atlantic to Florida and across the Gulf Coast, serves a region susceptible to hurricanes and other severe weather. As a result, Waffle House has prioritized trying to reopen as quickly as possible in the wake of disasters and the Waffle House Index was developed as an indicator of a storm's impact on a given area.
Hurricane Milton, which is classified as a Category 4 hurricane as of Wednesday afternoon, is projected to make landfall along Florida's Gulf Coast and bring «life-threatening» storm surge as well as high winds. It is then projected to track across central Florida to the state's Atlantic Coast.
As of 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the Waffle House Index showed closures throughout the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area along with Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast. Across central Florida, closures were reported in the Orlando and Ocala and Daytona areas — though Waffle Houses in the Miami and Gainesville areas remained open.
CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE MILTON SPAWNS DANGEROUS TORNADO OUTBREAK IN FLORIDA AHEAD OF CATASTROPHIC LANDFALL
Waffle House VP of food safety and public relations Njeri Boss told FOX Business in a statement, «Our mission remains to keep our associates out of harm's way. Accordingly, in areas predicted to be hardest hit, we are preemptively closing
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