{"id":1841401,"date":"2025-05-29T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1841401"},"modified":"2025-05-29T19:30:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T23:30:02","slug":"unauthorized-waffle-house-index-disaster-maps-taken-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/05\/unauthorized-waffle-house-index-disaster-maps-taken-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Unauthorized Waffle House Index Disaster Maps Taken Down"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Waffle House Index<\/a> is an informal metric used to assess the severity of a storm<\/a> in the U.S. South, because Waffle House restaurants don\u2019t close unless Things Are Very Bad. But when Jack LaFond scraped Waffle House\u2019s website to build a map tracking restaurant closures last fall, he got a cease-and-desist from Waffle House over trademark issues<\/a>. It got resolved more-or-less amiably in the end, but the website stayed down all the same. A different map, Riley Walz\u2019s Waffle House Index map, which I covered last fall<\/a>, also appears to be offline now, for what I presume are the same reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Waffle House Index is an informal metric used to assess the severity of a storm in the U.S. South, because Waffle House restaurants don\u2019t close unless Things Are Very Bad. But when Jack LaFond… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[846,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1841401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-disasters","category-web-mapping","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1834441,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/10\/hurricane-milton\/","url_meta":{"origin":1841401,"position":0},"title":"Hurricane Milton","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 October 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"NASA NASA Earth Observatory mapped the Gulf of Mexico\u2019s above-average sea surface temperatures (6-7 October) and brightness temperature\u2014\u201cwhich is useful for distinguishing cooler cloud structures (white and purple) from the warmer surface below (yellow and orange)\u201d\u2014as Milton crossed Florida. CNN maps the impact of Hurricane Milton across Florida. Riley Walz\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disasters"","block_context":{"text":"Disasters","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/disasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hurricane-milton.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hurricane-milton.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hurricane-milton.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hurricane-milton.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hurricane-milton.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/hurricane-milton.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1806609,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/03\/north-american-maps-for-curious-minds\/","url_meta":{"origin":1841401,"position":1},"title":"Review: North American Maps for Curious Minds","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"31 March 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"North American Maps for Curious Minds, written by Matthew Bucklan and Victor Cizek and featuring maps and illustrations by Jack Dunnington, is the second book in the Maps for Curious Minds series: Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds came out in 2019, and Wild Maps for Curious Minds is scheduled to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Book cover: North American Maps for Curious Minds","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/north-american-maps-curious-minds-236x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1788575,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/03\/still-more-coronavirus-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1841401,"position":2},"title":"Still More Coronavirus Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"31 March 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Kera Till\u2019s \u201cCommuting in Corona Times\u201d is a transit map of the new normal. More at Untapped New York. On a personal level, the coronavirus map I stare at the most is the one closest to home: a dashboard that shows the regional incidence of COVID-19 in Quebec. Maintained by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/kera-till-commuting-corona-1024x994.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/kera-till-commuting-corona-1024x994.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/kera-till-commuting-corona-1024x994.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/kera-till-commuting-corona-1024x994.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2950,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/09\/war-map-an-exhibition-of-pictorial-conflict-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1841401,"position":3},"title":"War Map: An Exhibition of Pictorial Conflict Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 September 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"We're familiar with caricature maps from before and during the First World War: maps that reimagine various countries as warring animals or caricatured faces. These aren't the only\u00a0examples of persuasive cartography or of pictorial maps of this or other wars, but I imagine they'll be front and centre at a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"war-map","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/war-map.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/war-map.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/war-map.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/war-map.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1354,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/03\/a-map-error-roundup\/","url_meta":{"origin":1841401,"position":4},"title":"A Map Error Roundup","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 March 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"A demolition company tore down the wrong house in Rowlett, Texas thanks to a Google Maps error that directed them one block over.\u00a0As is often the case in new subdivisions, the street names were extremely similar: Cousteau Drive and Calypso Drive. [via] Something similar, though not quite map-related,\u00a0happened on Sunday\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Map Errors"","block_context":{"text":"Map Errors","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/map-errors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4485,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/06\/a-map-of-the-ideological-leanings-of-u-s-congressmen\/","url_meta":{"origin":1841401,"position":5},"title":"A Map of the Ideological Leanings of U.S. Congressmen","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"14 June 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Based on data from GovTrack, this map displays the ideological leanings of current (at the time) members of the U.S. House of Representatives by their district. \"The data is based of numbers from 0-1. If the congressman is a 0 he is the most liberal in the House. If a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/congress-ideology-1024x570.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/congress-ideology-1024x570.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/congress-ideology-1024x570.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/congress-ideology-1024x570.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1841401"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1841404,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841401\/revisions\/1841404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1841401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1841401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1841401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}