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Even though the subject comes up during a concerning situation, the Waffle House Index creates a lot of interested every time its discussed. If you've never heard of it before, we can break it down for you before we move ahead.

The Waffle House Index is in reference to how Waffle House restaurants respond to severe weather, especially hurricanes. It's actually something that Waffle House uses themselves, rating restaurant response to natural disasters at three levels of the index:

GREEN: Full menu; the restaurant sustained little or no damage and has full power
YELLOW: Limited menu; the restaurant is running out of food or has limited power
RED: The Waffle House is closed due to severe flooding or damage

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
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Accuweather explained why the Waffle House Index matters outside of the Waffle House company:

"As bizarre and silly as the Waffle House Index might sound, it does indicate how a community is doing after a devastating weather event. An open Waffle House can feed people who have lost their homes, plus hungry first responders who have worked up an appetite rescuing people. In addition, the quicker businesses like grocery stores, restaurants, and banks reopen after a disaster, the quicker the community at large will recover."

It also matters because of where Waffle House has most of their locations. Even though Waffle House has plenty of locations in states that will never (at least, we think) deal with a hurricane, most of their locations are in hurricane prone areas. The Waffle Houses in Kansas, Ohio, and Indiana are probably safe from hurricanes, but the largest concentration of Waffle Houses are on the Gulf of Mexico, and southern Atlantic coast. Those areas are the most likely to deal with hurricanes ever year.

Check out the list of the Top 20 States With the Most Waffle House Locations here:

The States With Most Waffle Houses

The website VinePair put together a list of how many Waffle House locations are in each state. These are the top 20.

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