01/11/20 WAFFLE HOUSE INTERRUPTION — This past Saturday on The Huckabee Show on TBN, host Mike Huckabee interviewed CEO Walt Ehmer. They joked that emergency officials judge the seriousness of any given emergency by the scheduled hours of the local Waffle Houses: Regular hours means no problem; reduced hours indicates a little more serious emergency; and if the local Waffle House is closed, call in the FEMA people! But I want to tell you a true story—there’s another way to tell how serious an emergency that has something to do with the local WH’s.

In 2005 I was the pastor of a small Southern Baptist Church in central Virginia. Several of our members had just completed our Disaster Relief training and certification. Then hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf. My excited people insisted that we get down there ASAP. In fact, we beat the Salvation Army to Gulfport, Mississippi and LaPlace, Louisiana.

As we drove through Georgia and Alabama and into Mississippi, we noticed more Waffle House restaurants than we had ever seen before. At some interstate exits there were literally four, one at each entrance or exit! But as we got closer to the disaster, we noticed a trend. At first one or two of the letters were missing, for example WAF-FLE HO-SE. A few miles further, more letter were gone, e.g. WA—L- H—S-. As we arrived in Gulfport, we saw one roofless establishment identifies as mere –A—L- ---E-! So, we concluded that the more letters missing on the Waffle House signs, the more serious the damage in that location! Maybe in the near future I’ll share more of our adventures on that trip…