The unlikely way Whataburger’s app helped Hurricane Beryl victims

The Whataburger app has turned into an unlikely source of help for Texans that have been affected by Hurricane Beryl as it is giving them better updates than power companies on power outages.

On Monday, July 8, 2024, Texas and parts of Louisiana were hit by Hurricane Beryl, leaving more than three million without electricity.

Some tech-savvy Texans got crafty and discovered a way to use the Whataburger app to do more than order burgers.

With over 900 restaurants across the country, 769 of them in Texas, a viral tweet revealed they could use the app to track the hurricane’s damage.

This post on X, formerly Twitter, by Texas resident bbqbryan, went viral on July 9 after he discovered that the Whataburger app provided an accurate depiction of what parts of the state had power and what parts did not.

As you can see, the majority of the state was out of electricity, and subsequently, this meant that the Whataburger stores that were facing power outages were closed.

This post came as a response to the local energy company, CenterPoint Energy, which reported that over two million of its customers were without power, with no end in sight. The one thing they didn’t have though, was an app or website where their customers could see where was affected, receive any updates, or get any information about when power would be restored.

With over 10 million views at the time of the hurricane, it looks like people were genuinely using the Whataburger app to stay safe during an unsettling time.

This post went so viral that Whataburger themselves commented on the post, saying that even they were surprised by this resourceful use of their app and wishing everyone affected by the hurricane well. They then went on to say thanks to Bryan by offering to send him some free gifts.

People were commending the app for its accuracy, as the main issue was that the power outages were so sporadic that people didn’t know where was affected and where wasn’t: “This is accurate af. Crazy part is the Tomball Whataburger has power and I live 4 minutes from there and have no power. My neighbor across the street has power but I don’t. I don’t get it.”

Ironically, the energy company has since launched a power outage tracker that people on X are already saying is not as accurate as the Whataburger app.

As if Texans needed another reason to love the fast food chain that originated in their home state, fans are now calling them ‘Watt-aburger’ thanks to their saving the day during Hurricane Beryl.