Whataburger

The Whataburger App Is Essentially Tracking Houston’s Ongoing Power Outages | Eater Houston

"A Texas-based fast-food chain known for Breakfast-on-a-Buns, burgers, and fries with spicy ketchup has an app that not only locates nearby restaurants and lets customers place orders for pickup, but during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Beryl served informally as a power-outage tracker by showing which outlets were open (orange icons) or closed (gray) on its map. Social users highlighted the feature as helpful when the electric company’s map wasn’t available; at one point the app showed only about 40 open locations in the Houston area while nearly 100 appeared closed. A company representative later said roughly half of its 165 stores in the Houston and surrounding areas were open (including locations as far south as Texas City and as far west as Katy), and the CEO cautioned that the app should be used only as a general indicator of power availability and advised customers to call local units to confirm operations. The outages followed Beryl’s winds (as high as 89 mph), which left millions without power, flooded neighborhoods, and scattered debris; local utilities expected phased restorations in the days after the storm." - Brittany Britto Garley