Waffle House Closes Over 90 Florida Locations Ahead of Hurricane Milton

Waffle House is preparing for Hurricane Milton.

The storm is projected to cause catastrophic damage as it makes landfall on Florida’s west coast. As a result, the 24-hour breakfast chain, which only closes in extreme situations, is closing 31 locations in the Tampa area. Over two dozen Orlando locations are also closing, along with 15 in Fort Myers and 15 in Daytona and Ocala.

Hurricane Milton, a Category 4 storm, is projected to hit Wednesday night or early Thursday.

Waffle House gave the news as part their “Waffle House Index” — which is “unofficially used by locals to gauge how bad a hurricane threat is,” according to the Weather Channel.

“These updated #whindex status maps reflect our closures as of 2PM this afternoon in advance of #HurricaneMilton. Please stay safe,” the official Waffle House account posted on X on Wednesday. 

The account noted that “due to the potential for variations in Milton’s path, this information is subject to change without notice. Please follow local guidance.”

Closures are a telltale sign of Milton’s severity as the Waffle House often provides resources to emergency officials and community members during extreme weather.

In January 2021, the chain’s food truck was handing out meals in Fultondale, Alabama after a tornado struck the city; additionally, locations were open during a winter storm in Monroe, Louisiana in February 2021, per the Weather Channel.

Even the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) uses the Waffle House Index.

“If you get there and the Waffle House is closed?” former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate has said in the past. “That’s really bad. That’s where you go to work.”

A 2011 blog post for FEMA stated how the agency looks to the popular chain as a barometer of sorts, coined by Fugate as the Waffle House Index.

“The Waffle House test doesn’t just tell us how quickly a business might rebound – it also tells us how the larger community is faring. The sooner restaurants, grocery and corner stores, or banks can re-open, the sooner local economies will start generating revenue again – signaling a stronger recovery for that community,” the statement read.

As of Oct. 7, two dozen Waffle House locations remain closed after Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in northern Florida’s Big Bend region late on Sept. 26. The affected locations include those in Asheville, North Carolina, Greenburg-Spartanburg, South Carolina and Augusta and Valdosta, Georgia.

In September 2022, the breakfast chain also temporarily closed dozens of locations along the Gulf Coast from Bradenton to Naples, amid devastation from Hurricane Ian.