In the wake of Hurricane Beryl's sweep through Houston, leaving more than 2 million people without power, citizens found an unorthodox method for tracking power outages — the Whataburger mobile app. According to the Houston Chronicle, with the official outage tracker from CenterPoint Energy down, the popular fast-food chain's location status served as an impromptu gauge for electrical service in the area.
Houston residents used the app's map feature to identify which Whataburger outlets were operational, indicated by the orange "W" logo, and which were not, marked by a gray icon, because given Whataburger's 24-hour service model, a gray icon likely signaled a location was suffering power loss, as Express News reported, the CenterPoint outage tracker map had crashed due to the storm's impacts and the unprecedented user traffic seeking updates on the utility interruptions.
The novel use of the Whataburger app gained traction online after Bryan Norton, social media user, @BBQBryan, wrote on X noted the potential for the app to provide power outage updates. On Tuesday morning, the Houston Chronicle indicated that of the 127 Whataburger locations in the Houston area, only 30 remained open as of 9 a.m.
Though this makeshift tracking system was not entirely accurate, as some users found discrepancies upon arriving at locations labeled open on the app, it provided a rough sketch of the power situation, particularly as CenterPoint Energy itself reported massive power outages peaking at over 2.2 million affected customers, this number had decreased to around 1.7 million by Tuesday morning while the utility company struggled to recover its systems and provisional online services for its clientele, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Acknowledging the unintended yet helpful use of its app, Whataburger responded to the public's resourcefulness, stating, "Well there’s a use for our app we didn’t think of! We hope you and everyone else are okay!" as reported by the Express News.
