Perilous

Radars, satellites and special monitoring devices all can’t tell the federal government as much about the scope of a disaster as the Waffle House restaurant chain, legendary in the Midwest and South. If you’ve never heard of the Waffle House, it’s kind of a slightly less-classy version of IHOP, at the risk of offending Waffle House regulars. (I’m not exactly a Waffle House regular, but I did grow up in Oklahoma and know all about them.)

FEMA honcho Craig Fugate said at a conference last week in New Orleans that no matter how bad a disaster is, Waffle House locations are among the first to re-open, and if they don’t, he knows conditions are truly worrisome. Over 100 of the chain’s locations were battered by Hurricane Katrina, says Emergency Management magazine. So they reacted swiftly by opening a command center and using gas grills to cook food and boil water in areas where the power had otherwise been knocked out:

Waffle House CEO Walt Ehmer described how recovery is ingrained in the company. He said the culture of the company revolves around two words: Show up. Getting restaurants open as quickly as possible following an emergency not only gives Waffle House the competitive advantage, but it also allows employees to return to work and provides a sense of normalcy for residents who may not have had a hot meal in days.

Image: Flickr/sushiesque