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How restaurants are recovering from Hurricane Ian

How you can prepare and react to Hurricane Ian

Holly Petre, Assistant Digital Editor

October 3, 2022

 

Welcome to First Bite, a Nation’s Restaurant News podcast, your daily source of news from NRN hosted by Holly Petre.

Today, we’re talking about how restaurants can prepare and react to Hurricane Ian.

After Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm and continued to cause damage on Thursday as it was downgraded to a Category 1 storm, many residents and businessowners are now left to assess the damage. One indicator of the catastrophic impact of the hurricane is that, at the peak of the storm, 40 Waffle Houses were closed across Florida

Over the years, 24-hour breakfast brand Waffle House has become a storm barometer of sorts across the Southeast: if Waffle Houses are closing you know the storm is bad.

Rescue teams are working to help Florida coastal residents with flooded homes and communities. Many were unable to evacuate because the hurricane path was fairly unpredictable, and hit Central Florida much harder than initially expected. In Orlando, although many theme parks had already reopened on Friday, many sustained damage as well. Both Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando opened their parks and restaurants in stages starting on Friday. Disney World announced that around 80 resort restaurants are still closed, including AAA Five Diamond-rated Victoria & Albert’s at the Grand Floridian Resort. It is unclear whether low staffing, supply chain issues or both have impacted the lengthy list of temporary closures.

Hear more from Joanna Fantozzi.

Plus, catch up on all the top news of the day with our daily news recap at the beginning of each episode.

Be sure to subscribe to First Bite wherever you get your podcasts or on Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

About the Author

Holly Petre

Assistant Digital Editor

Holly Petre is a digital editor for Nation’s Restaurant News as well as the host of NRN’s podcast, Extra Serving, and producer for Informa Restaurant and Food Group’s other three podcasts, One On One by Food Management, Off the Shelf with SN and In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn. Holly holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Sculpture, fibers and Material Studies and Ceramics from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A native New Yorker, Holly enjoys her place on staff as the resident pop-culture expert and millennial with a sassy attitude and great sense of style.

Holly Petre’s work on Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality often covers marketing and trends, either aimed-at or examined-through the millennial mindset. Holly is responsible for introducing TikTok and Twitch to NRN and RH readers as well as explaining terms like “Karen” to staff and readers alike. She also spends her time on staff trying not to make every headline a pun.

Holly Petre hasn’t spoken at any events or on panels, but she is readily available with a killer shoe wardrobe and several witty quips.

 

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