Hurricane Ian Is Shutting Down Waffle House Locations; Why That Matters

As comedian Jim Gaffigan once said, Waffle House’s motto should be something along the lines of, “It’s 2 a.m. There’s still time to make one more bad decision.”

The breakfast chain is indeed open 24 hours in most locations, giving people an opportunity to have a waffle and/or eggs at any hour of the day.

But in Florida, those days are on hiatus — thanks, of course, to Hurricane Ian. So not even Waffle House can withstand the wrath of the storm.

As relayed by People, Waffle House has now “temporarily closed dozens of locations along the Gulf Coast from Bradenton to Naples,” again, as a result of Ian swirling into the state at warp speed.

“We currently have approximately 35 restaurants closed, but that number will fluctuate quite a bit,” Njeri Boss, Waffle House vice president of public relations, told People. “We are in the process of reopening restaurants, depending on power availability, safety and staffing, among other issues.”

But it should also be noted that the breakfast chain does more than just serve waffles (not to mention an array of other items). It also has served as sort of a safe haven during extreme weather conditions, providing resources to the community, as well as to emergency personnel.

So the fact it’s temporarily shutting down should tell you all you need to know about the severity of Hurricane Ian.

“We are working diligently to continue to serve the communities in which we are located,” Boss said.

For a lot of people, those re-openings can’t happen soon enough.