This 2016 story followed a team of Waffle House operations analysts as they decided whether to close any of the chain’s locations in preparation for Hurricane Matthew, a Category 5 storm that ended up affecting the Florida coast as a Category 2 storm. This week, as at least 21 Waffle House locations in Florida closed due to Hurricane Ian, we thought we should revisit what happens when the famously resilient restaurant shuts its doors for a storm — and why even the federal government pays attention when it does.
On a warm, cloudy morning in the first week of October, in an anonymous office park just outside Atlanta, operations analyst Matt Stark opened a computer program, ran through some data and looked thoughtfully at the results.
Hey all — Tainley here, I strongly recommend clicking through and reading the entire article — no couple-paragraph synopsis can do it justice. It’s a great read on people being resilient. Also, Gillette, haven’t seen you in a couple days… hope all is well for you and your family.
Sir Tainley
Article URL : https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/waffle-house-hurricane/