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As hurricane Florence approaches, FEMA will closely monitor the Waffle House, the fast food chain known to remain open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The agency coined the term "waffle index" during the 2004 hurricane season to measure the effects of a natural disaster in an area.
If the restaurant closes or restricts menu items during or after a danger, they know that the community has been hit hard.
The index has three levels of color: green means that everything is fine, at least in the waffle; yellow is when the restaurant serves a limited menu, which means that the area has lost power or lack of supplies; and red if it's closed, showing that the area has been hit hard.
"The Waffle House test just does not tell us how fast a business could bounce back – it also shows how the big community is doing," FEMA said in a post published in 2011.
"The sooner restaurants, grocery and convenience stores, or banks can reopen, the more local economies will start generating revenue again – signaling a strong recovery for this community.
The channel posted a photo on Wednesday of company employees monitoring the storm's trajectory as they decided if sites would be closed.
"The Waffle House Storm Center is activated and monitors Florence. Plan ahead and be safe » they tweeted.
At least one place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, closed on Wednesday night, Eater said.
Executive Pat Warner told Fox News: "We're a 24-hour restaurant, so strangely enough, closing is a big problem for us.
The Georgia-based chain has more than 2,000 sites, mostly in the south.
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