The Urban Legend Behind the Waffle House Index
In September 2024, while most Floridians prepared for Hurricane Helene, local college student Jack LaFond settled in to reverse-engineer the Waffle House website. Sounds like valid hurricane prep, right? Actually, it was. What Jack was investigating was the "Waffle House Index" of urban legend. See, rumor has it that even FEMA relies on the elusive "Waffle House Index" to gauge the severity of natural disasters. Yet, there is no actual "index," just vague whispers on Wikipedia and other Internet articles. The theory is this: since Waffle House is notorious for remaining open even in the face of pending storms and other disasters, one can gauge the severity of a storm based on whether or not the local Waffle House is closed. Since there was no actual "index," Jack set about creating one.
Teen Reverse Engineers Waffle House Website During Hurricane Helene
Without getting too technical, Jack did some digging into the Waffle House website and ultimately uncovered a file essentially listing every single location, the status of each, and whether each such location was closed. Using this data, Jack created a live map showing which Waffle House locations were closed and, by extrapolation, which parts of the country could be hardest hit by Helene. He posted his data and map on wafflehouseindex.org and sent a tweet to his some-200 followers.
Waffle House Responds to Viral Hurricane Tracker
Much to his surprise, Waffle House's corporate account not only saw the tweet, but replied: "This information is incorrect. We currently do not have a live website tracking restaurant closures. Any information regarding the status of our restaurants will come from an official Waffle House account." In true teen fashion, Jack quote-tweeted their response and added, "haha, now you do!" He never thought to hear from the breakfast giant again. Until Frank Lutz, an American political commentator (who also happens to have more than 400,000 followers on Twitter/X) saw Jack's tweet and took an interest. Lutz shared the site with a tweet directly linking to it and that's when things got interesting. Waffle House offered Lutz the same response they had offered Jack, at which point Lutz apologized and deleted the tweet.
Cease and Desist: When Fan Projects Cross Legal Lines
Jack attempted to investigate further, only to learn he was blocked from the Waffle House corporate account on Twitter/X. Not long afterward, he received a letter from the breakfast chain's legal department demanding that he "cease and desist all unauthorized use of Trademarks owned by WH Intellectual, LLC and any confusingly similar marks in connection with [his] website." Interestingly, it was Jack's recreation of the Waffle House logo for his "Waffle House Index" website that created the greater uproar and not his scraping and reverse engineering of the actual corporate website. Consistent with his earlier exchange via Twitter/X, Jack responded in humor, stating he is a "huge fan of the House" and indicating his intent to "honor and respect Waffle House with [the] data."
Lessons Learned: Trademark Law vs. Creative Projects
He received a much less legal reply, thanking him for his attempt to assist in the recovery efforts, but reminding him (firmly) that he was violating the chain's trademarks and needed to take the website down. Jack did so. And while he acknowledges that Waffle House could have taken a friendlier approach, he learned a lot about trademark law, scraping ethics, and the fine line that can exist between creative projects and the intellectual property rights of others. Clearly this young man has a bright and creative future ahead. Respect and syrup, Jack. Respect and syrup.
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