Tiger Bay Q&A with Craig Fugate, Florida Master of Disasters, Waffle House Index inventor

Craig Fugate – Florida’s "Master of Disasters" – served as the point man in catastrophes for former President Barack Obama and former Gov. Jeb Bush.

On Tuesday, he entertained the Capital Tiger Bay Club with anecdotes from inside the West Wing and being at Bush’s side at Florida’s emergency management headquarters.

For instance, Fugate said he knows not to play basketball with Obama – it’s not a foul if you're not bleeding – and not to be surprised with Bush’s ability to blow up an agency head's presentation with an unexpected question.

Fugate, who was the emergency manager for Alachua County, was appointed director of Florida's Division of Emergency Management in 2001 by Bush. He earned his nickname for how he managed the state’s response to the “Big 4 of ‘04,” when Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne struck.

The four storms came within 30 days in August and September of that year and some local officials besieged Fugate with aid demands he believed would come at the expense of areas hit harder by the storm.

That's when he developed the “Waffle House index."

How the 'Waffle House index' created by Fugate works

The index, with its red, yellow, and green highlighting, explained the deployment of first responders, equipment, and supplies based on whether individual locations of the chain were open. It was born after Charlie came ashore in southwest Florida.

When first responders such as search and rescue workers, National Guard troops and law enforcement entered a disaster area and came across an open Waffle House, Fugate would mark the area green and the responders’ instructions were to keep driving.

When they found one open but offering only a limited menu, the community was designated yellow and human service agencies were deployed. And if they found a closed Waffle House, a red zone, they knew things were bad and the community needs the most attention. That's where they stopped and got to work.

Column by Craig Fugate: Bold, creative solutions needed in the Panhandle after Hurricane Michael (from 2019)

It takes three things to close a Waffle House, Fugate explained. The building had to be unsafe, the roads around it blocked, and water and electricity disrupted.

“So just by looking at one indicator, I know a lot about what shape the infrastructure and roads are in and the situation we faced. If they can get open, it means roads are passable" and they can get supplies, Fugate told the crowd.

Waffle House executives, however, put a scare into Fugate in 2017 when they called and asked to meet with him about his index. He thought maybe he had offended them or, worse, got himself into legal trouble.

It was neither: “They were ... thrilled. They said, 'We don't advertise, and you've had us in the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.' People have actually written papers on the logistics of getting a Waffle House open," Fugate said.

Afterward, the USA TODAY Network-Florida spoke with Fugate about, among other things, what it's like to work for Obama, who named him Federal Emergency Management Agency head in 2009, and Bush (answers have been edited for clarity and brevity):

Q: Why advise people to stay home in the 72 hours after a catastrophe, such as a hurricane, when public services are offline?

Fugate: "You need to be prepared ahead of time ... because you are not going to be able to get out with trees down and blocking roads. Up until Hurricane Ivan we generally saw more deaths after the storm, from accidents, traffic, electrocutions, carbon monoxide poisoning from generators. If you did the smart things before the storm, the best way to stay alive is to stay home and stay off your roof. Emergency services are already overstretched. And we found that people, just for the first couple of days, (should) avoid getting out, which means they had to have enough supplies to take care of stuff and only go out if they absolutely have to."

Q: How do you assess the state’s preparedness today for a major storm or catastrophic event ?

Fugate: " If you think about it, Florida's building code only gets improved after we've had major failures. We did not have a statewide unified building code until Hurricane Andrew. We didn't address the building code for the Panhandle until after Hurricane Ivan. So, as we've seen the storms hit and we'd see where the building code has gaps, we made improvements. But my observation is every time we solve a big problem, a small problem (evolves) into a big problem."

Q: What kind of managers are former President Barack Obama and Gov. Jeb Bush?

Fugate: "They are very much alike. They’re on the exact opposite end of policy but if you ever been around them, they are very similar in how they operate. First of all, they ain't great one-on-one: back slapping, hugging, baby kissing ...  and you find that, really, they're both introverts. Both of them have told me I'm crazy (when) I said, 'yeah, you guys are introverts,' but both had a tight circle of people they socialized with and they really didn't move outside that circle, except when they're fundraising.

"The other thing is, they are very action oriented. They want to hear all the options, and once they make a decision, they want everybody to move forward. And the other thing I found fascinating? Both of them were crazy enough to allow me to do my job and just basically give me all the rope I needed. They never told me how to do my job."

Column by Craig Fugate: Hurricanes show need for radio-enabled smartphones (from 2017)

James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee .

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tiger Bay Q&A with Craig Fugate, Florida Master of Disasters, Waffle House Index inventor