Between having to turn into bed early last night and Omaha’s obnoxious levels of light pollution, I didn’t get to see the aurora with my own eyes. So, I’m thankful for those who’ve shared photos from last night.

The University of Miami’s mascot is an ibis, despite the team name being the Hurricanes. The reason for this is that the ibis is the last bird to leave before a hurricane and the first one to return. In much the same way, Waffle House has a similar reputation in the South.

Ben Kesslen, writing for Quartz:

The chain prides itself on being open when its customers need it most but is particularly vulnerable to hurricanes with most of its locations in the Gulf Coast, Florida, the South, and mid-Atlantic. Waffle House said it “fully embraced its post-disaster business strategy after Hurricane Katrina,” when seven restaurants were destroyed and dozens were shut down.

It’s to the point that FEMA will monitor which Waffle Houses are open and which ones are closed to monitor how bad a natural disaster is or is going to be. The company even has its own storm center to determine which of its stores will remain open.

Waffle House has labeled Milton, a Category 4 storm, as a “Code Red,” which means the company has closed its locations in the path of the storm. A “Yellow” rating means that the location will have a limited menu and that the area might not have power. A “Green” index means the store is operating as normal.

Pretty much every store in central Florida was closed ahead of Milton, with the nearest open stores to Tampa being the ones in Gainesville or in the Miami metropolitan area.

One Twitter user in Florida wrote Wednesday, “Update: all Waffle Houses near our house are closed. If you don’t know, the one ironclad rule of hurricanes is if a Waffle House closes, s—-’s getting real.”

It definitely got real.

It’ll never not stun me how fast tropical systems become major hurricanes these days.