After Hurricane Helene made landfall in northwest Florida, a single photo of a boarded-up Waffle House has been declared “the most terrifying image on the internet.”
The chain, whose restaurants are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is known for staying open during many natural disasters, with the so-called ‘Waffle House index’, a measure used to measure the severity and damage caused by a to measure storms.
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The Waffle House Index was created by Craig Fugate in 2011 after the Joplin tornado in Missouri. Fugate was the FEMA administrator at the time.
“When you get there and the Waffle House is closed, it’s really bad. That’s where you’re going to work,” he said, the index conjecture.
As Hurricane Helene prepares to make landfall in northwest Florida, a single photo of a boarded-up Waffle House in Crawfordville has been named the ‘most terrifying image’
The index is an informal measure of the severity of a storm and its effect on the affected community by measuring how many Waffle House restaurants remain open, or which menu items are still served during storms.
According to the restaurant chain website, 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, which at best indicates generator power and low food supplies.
Red means the restaurant is closed, a sign of serious damage in the area or unsafe conditions, as indicated in the current index.
Helene was classified as a Category 4 storm overnight, with forecasters warning residents in the south-east to brace for a ‘nightmare’.
In Crawfordville, where the viral image of one of the chain’s restaurants is located, alarmed residents were preparing to bunker down when the storm hit, calling the photo the “most terrifying image” of the storm.
The eerie footage shows wooden planks covering the restaurant’s windows, with the usually busy chain completely empty.
“Helene is about to start some BIG s**t in Florida,” the caption for the image read. “The Waffle House Index never lied, and this is the most terrifying image on the Internet today. IYKYK,” another shared.
“Waffle House scale stops at closed…new scale limit reached: Waffle House boarded up,” one concerned user wrote.
The index is an informal measure of the severity of a storm and its effect on the affected community
As of this writing, Hurricane Helene has hit southeastern America, with US authorities warning people that they could drown in their homes if they do not heed evacuation warnings.
Parts of Florida and Georgia are facing “unsurvivable” conditions due to the risk of “storm surges,” a weather event described as a “wall of water.”
Helene had already prompted warnings and several states of emergency, not just in Florida, but all the way to Georgia and the Carolinas. More than 60 million Americans in twelve states are under some form of counseling.
Floridians who did not evacuate ahead of Hurricane Helene posted gruesome images throughout the night as the storm ravaged their homes.
The hurricane is now barreling through Georgia after making landfall in Florida, killing six people in several states and leaving more than three million people without power.
The storm was updated to a Category 4 on Thursday evening and hit the Big Bend region of the state just after 11 p.m.
Florida is now experiencing storm surges of up to 20 feet high and wind speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.