Warner, the Waffle House executive, responded with a list of seven locations that were open but without electrical power in an email obtained by the Globe. Phil Strouse, an official with FEMAвЂ™s department of external affairs, addressed an email to вЂњprivate sector partnersвЂќ informing businesses about the agencyвЂ™s response to the snowstorm and asking for updates. This cooperation was on display during a 2014 winter storm that crippled roads and airports and left 22 people dead. Warner credits Fugate with encouraging communication between the private sector and government disaster agencies. There are more than 1,500 Waffle House restaurants around the country, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Pat Warner, vice president of culture for Waffle House, says the company continues to regularly send the index to FEMA and state agencies. When a winter storm hit the Southeastern United States in 2014, the agency mapped all the Waffle Houses in the region, coding them under the heading вЂњWaffle House Index,вЂќ the documents show. While the index is informal, by monitoring the status of private companies in a disaster, FEMA hopes to better coordinate its placement of goods and services, the documents show, and it found a place in FEMA disaster-monitoring software. It also uses aerial photographs, wind speeds and other tools to assess damage. in Webb City was to the north of the storm path.ДЇugate was reminded of something he had noticed earlier: Even in the midst of disaster, Waffle House never seems to close.ДЇEMA considers the index вЂњpart of its initial situational awareness,вЂќ according to the internal documents. Range Line Road was on the south side of the tornadoвЂ™s path, while the Waffle House at 1208 S.

Craig Fugate, a former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has said.ДЇugate came up with the index after the Joplin tornado in 2011, according to FEMAвЂ™s вЂњexecutive summaryвЂќ of the index, which was released to the public via a Freedom of Information Act request.Дespite the catastrophic damage in Joplin, when thousands of homes and hundreds of businesses were damaged and destroyed, the areaвЂ™s Waffle House restaurants were both open, indicating to the emergency managers arriving from outside Missouri that the local economy had not shut down entirely.

вЂњIf you get there and the Waffle House is closed? ThatвЂ™s really bad. If the restaurant is closed, the index goes to red.

Waffle house index