United States|The American Waffle House restaurant chain supports the authorities and feeds emergency workers during natural disasters, but keeping the doors open also has a darker side.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
The Waffle House restaurant chain is known for its waffles and the fact that the restaurants are always open.
FEMA uses Waffle House’s opening hours to assess the severity of crises, the so-called With the Waffle House index.
Waffle House strives to restore at least partial operation of its restaurants immediately after natural disasters.
The restaurant chain has prepared for this with backup warehouses and a storm center that monitors the situation.
However, Waffle House has been accused of violating labor laws. Workers’ pay is low, and more dangerous work is not paid during storms.
“Our operations group is working to restore a sense of normalcy to the communities most affected by Hurricane Helene,” reads an update published on the messaging service X
The post is accompanied by a map showing which locations are open just days after Hurricane Helene swept across the southeastern United States.
However, it is not a public actor or a crisis service, but a waffle restaurant serving fatty food.
American Waffle House -restaurant chain is known for two things: its waffles and the fact that its restaurants are always open.
Always staying open is not an exaggeration. The chain’s restaurants close their doors only in extreme emergencies. The US Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, uses the opening hours of its restaurants to evaluate how serious the crisis really is.
This rating is playfully called the Waffle House Index. The term was launched by the former head of FEMA Craig Fugate. According to the index, the situation in the area is stable, i.e. green if the waffle restaurant is open and operating normally. You are on yellow if the menu is narrower than usual and electricity is best obtained only with an aggregate.
If the restaurant is red and completely closed, the situation is serious.
A Florida Waffle House restaurant was damaged in the floods caused by Hurricane Helene.
At Waffle House has more than 2,000 restaurants. Most of the chain’s restaurants, which are popular with truck drivers and other night workers, are located in the southern states of the United States. It is the same area where tropical storms and hurricanes tend to hit.
Now it has been tested by hurricanes Helene and Milton one after the other. The comments flooding Waffle House’s updates on the messaging service X speak their own language about the meaning of the restaurant to Americans.
“Waffle House will always be here for us.”
“Waffle House is a national treasure”.
“FEMA could learn from Waffle House”.
Restaurant chain does close its doors in the worst possible situation, but opening the doors quickly is of prime importance for restaurants.
This is why the restaurant chain is built by to support a massive organization. It has temporary warehouses where it stores food supplies when crises approach. The menu is structured in such a way that the restaurant is able to offer limited portions even without electricity.
The chain also has its own operational storm center that cooperates with FEMA. The purpose of the center is to maintain the situational picture of the regional managers of the restaurant chain and to evaluate which restaurants are able to stay open.
The pictures published from the storm center got a lot of attention on the messaging service X on Wednesday.
Although the restaurant chain’s communication on social media emphasizes community and the fact that Waffle House exists for its customers is a strong commercial logic behind its resilience.
The restaurants that are the first to open in crisis areas want a big profit. Civilians left in the area often have no other places to get warm food. In addition, the crisis workers cleaning up the destruction also have to eat somewhere.
However, the restaurant chain’s policy raises questions about the status of its employees. Waffle House employees average salary is only half of the average salary in the state of Florida, about 2100 euros per month.
The majority of a restaurant worker’s salary is based on tips, and during the worst storm there are hardly any customers. The restaurant staff may therefore be risking their lives and health to work for less than the minimum wage. Employees will also not be paid extra hazardous work for working during storms.
In addition to this, at least one trade union has accused Waffle House for violating US wage laws.
Hurricane Milton left behind significant flooding.
Hurricane Milton hit Florida weaker than feared, but more than three million households were still left without power. There was still no full information on the extent of the damage on Friday morning.
Waffle House by publishing on the map, most of the restaurants in central Florida appeared red Thursday night. How quickly the map points turn green speaks volumes about the severity of the damage.
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