In times of catastrophe, Waffle House shows us the way
I first became aware of the Waffle House Index during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. But the Washington Post article this week informed me that there is a Waffle House Storm Center.
Former FEMA administrator W. Craig Fugate came up with the Waffle House Index as a way to determine how an overall community was faring during a disaster.
“The Waffle House test doesn’t just tell us how quickly a business might rebound — it also tells us how the larger community is faring,” Dan Stoneking wrote on the FEMA Blog in 2011. “The sooner restaurants, grocery and corner stores, or banks can reopen, the sooner local economies will start generating revenue again — signaling a stronger recovery for that community.”
The Waffle House Index — which is, again, a real thing that our government uses — is color-coded. If Waffle Houses are open and offering a full menu, the index is green. If they’re offering a limited menu, it’s yellow. If locations in the affected area are forced to close, the index is red — and because Waffle Houses are very prepared, this is the rarest scenario. In Murrells Inlet, S.C., a still-operating Waffle House employee told a reporter that during 2016’s Hurricane Matthew, the location only closed after the ceiling tiles began to fall.
One more reason to support your local Waffle House.
Also, here's a link to webcams in the path of Hurricane Florence:
Rep. Mark Meadows says disgraced FBI agent's text shows "leak strategy" existed
Western NC's Congressman says newly-discovered text messages show the FBI official who ran both investigations into Hillary Clinton and then Donald Trump shows there was a plan to disseminate information via media outlets during the Trump probe.
From FOX News:
In a revised letter sent Tuesday, Meadows, who serves on the House Oversight Committee, writes that on April 22, Strzok texted that "article is out! Well done, Page." It is unclear what article [Peter] Strzok was referring to, or whether it was about the Russia case. In Meadows' original letter, however, he claimed that exchange occurred on April 12 -- one day after The Washington Post published a story titled, "FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor former Trump adviser Carter Page."
Meadows' revised letter also includes a comment from Strzok to [Lisa] Page on April 12, in which Strzok suggests an article about Page's "namesake" would soon come out. That was an apparent reference to Page, the former Trump adviser whom the FBI surveilled for months after obtaining a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. During April 2017, there was widespread reporting about Page, his Russia contacts, the FBI’s interest in those contacts and the surveillance warrant that is supposed to remain secret.
Democrats and Peter Strzok's attorney essentially say Rep. Meadows is a liar.
Democrats attempted to refute point-by-point a letter from GOP Rep. Mark Meadows to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in which Meadows claims text messages between a former FBI agent and a Justice Department lawyer recently released to Congress show there is a “systemic culture of media leaking by high-ranking officials” at the agencies.
But the fired FBI official Peter Strzok and DOJ lawyer Lisa Page were not texting about leaking information to the press — they were texting about combatting leaks, Democrats said Tuesday.
Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform and Judiciary Committees, respectively, said Meadows ripped two isolated text messages out of context to paint an inaccurate picture of the text conversation between Strzok and Page.
“The documents clearly show that Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page were not discussing how to leak documents to the press — but whether the Justice Department should change its regulations to stop leaks to the media,” the Democrats said.
Meadows will join us today at 3:00 to discuss it.
Here's how CNN promoted the story on Twitter:
Reason Number 9,347 on why people don't trust media.
But, wait! There's more!
Politico reports the FEMA administrator is under investigation for his use of official cars - driving back & forth between Washington and NC.
John Hood of the John Locke Foundation spells out how the NC politics game is played.
Longtime liberal activist Bob Phillips predicts the end of democracy in North Carolina. Maybe.
Jon Gabriel writes that Trump is not 'normal,' but neither are the Democrats who protested Brett Kavanaugh.