Eating At Waffle House During Hurricane Ian Central Florida Hurricane Damage Waffle House Index

Hey friends, today is Thursday, September 29th. Hurricane Ian hit Florida last night. Me and Gracie hunkered down here at our place in Celebration, Florida and now it is cleared up enough that I figured I'd come on out, show you guys some of the damage in the area, maybe grab a bite to eat at the Waffle House and then drive around the Walt Disney World Resort because right now Disney World is closed and I don't know when they plan on reopening. Anywho, let's go do this. My prayers go out to anyone that was affected by this hurricane, especially people down on the coast. You know, I've seen some video and it looked like it got really bad. Here on 192, you can see we have a lot of flooding actually in the area and I can see some wild turkeys actually in the water over here and some fishes too. There's actually some fishes in this parking lot here. I'm not too sure if I can catch them for you but I can see them actually sticking their head up right here. The reason I said maybe we'd go get something to eat at the Waffle House is because they use Waffle House kind of as an index on how severe a storm actually is. You know what I mean? If Waffle Houses start closing down then it's very severe and last night 21 Waffle Houses closed in Florida. The one that is closest to me I think is still open and they have like generators like they're there, they're built to withstand these hurricanes. Like if you guys look it up, like hurricanes and Waffle House have a long running tradition. So maybe we'll try to get some coffee there because I stocked up on all the necessities. I got bottled water, I got some canned soup but you always forget something and in my case, I forgot the coffee. Cannot forget that. One of the things I noticed was this gigantic billboard and it has Mickey Mouse's glove on the bottom here and it got taken away by the hurricane. It was a big advertisement for Epcot. Like all right here and you can see it's dangling right there actually. So the winds must have been too fierce. On the other side it says Hollywood Studios. That's still intact but this one, this one didn't make it. Most of all of the businesses are all shut down except for a couple of unlikely places that are still open. Some grocery stores, some Disney gift shops, even the ticket places, the places that sell the discounted tickets, they're actually open right now. Other than Waffle Houses, like I said, there's a couple of these Disney gift stores that are still open. I don't know if they actually have like food items in there. They might have like a beverage cooler or something like that but there are some people in there shopping. You got to get the Disney souvenirs at a cheap rate and then you can see some of the signage from some of the buildings already flew off here too. I don't even know what that says but that's a, that's a heavy, heavy sign. Me and Gracie have been seeking shelter at my house for probably, I think, well over 24 hours since yesterday morning and we only came out just to let her try to go to the bathroom which wasn't happening. It was either the rain or the loud noise that she didn't like it at all. I know a lot of people wanted to go to Disney and stay at a resort and stuff like that but like we live really close anyway and I'd rather like save those rooms probably for people that are going to be, you know, coming in from the coast. You know what I mean? People that are seeking shelter away from like Tampa and stuff like that. I've even offered my couch to some of my Tampa friends. You know what I mean? And now I feel like it's clear enough that we can go explore around. The big part of the hurricane is over and I don't know what kind of damage we have. I mean, I'm not sure it's not, I'm sure it's not as nearly as bad as like I said the coast but I'm sure there's some trees down, some flooding, a lot of garbage and debris and I'll try to show you guys a little bit of everything. You can see we got a couple of trees down right here and probably a couple more very soon. It doesn't look good for those. I thought this would be a fun video to show you guys what it's like, you know, going to Waffle House, seeing what it's like after a hurricane but also to update you guys on how me and Gracie are doing. I got tons of messages from a lot of people out there. Thank you so much. I felt so loved and cared for and it's a good way to keep you guys updated and let you know that we are okay. So I might not keep it up. I might actually just take it down, you know, after a little bit because I just, like I said, it's a good way to just send out a nice message to be like, hey, me and Gracie are good. We did good and here's some delicious waffles, you know, stuff like that. This is what I think about. Honestly, basically this parking lot, this road right here and then the road on the other side of it are just completely flooded. Uh-oh. Someone's gonna drive through this. It's pretty deep. I think they're questioning it now. They're like, should I do it? I wouldn't drive through it. I think they're going for it. Oh boy. Don't do it. It's really deep. Good, good. It's, I mean, I would say this is probably three feet right now, maybe four. I'm good. I'm happy, especially in the car. Now an SUV probably could make it but I wouldn't want to see anyone to get any damage to their cars. Now it's time we start making our way over to Waffle House to see if we can get something to eat and fun fact, I know what it's like to actually work in a restaurant during a state of emergency and even through a hurricane. I've done that before. I've worked in the restaurant industry for like 10 plus years and I've done it up north during blizzards. I've done it down here in Florida during hurricanes and it is challenging. So please be respectful to the service workers out there. You have no idea what they have to go through. I know they get forward to coming out to these days and, you know, making a lot of money, but it's at a big cost. It is. And this is the first major hurricane that I'm not actually going to be there. So I'm very grateful and I'm going to make sure to take care of all of the service industry workers that are out there working for us today, giving us food and stuff like that. And yeah, I'm hungry. So we'll see if we can get a table. Here is a look at the Waffle House and there's about 50 people waiting to get inside. You can see there's almost nowhere, like everyone's just standing up. They got people over here. So the wait time is probably like an hour or two. I mean, they're usually fast. We'll see if we can hop in and maybe go to the bar because it's just me, you know. I'm sure they probably have like a limited menu and like a time limit because I feel like, I mean, they have a small seating area anyway and there's probably no takeout. It's probably all just dine in, but we'll figure it out and see how long it takes now. Success! My name is on the list and it looks like there was like 20 names before me, so we'll see how long it goes. But it does look like they had some storm damage because half of the tables are blocked off because it's flooded. You can see they actually have like three of the boots here that are actually down because they're flooding in the area and you got a little wet floor sign there. Here is a look at the limited menu. They have a little bit of a price increase, not too much though. It's still actually very affordable. A waffle is $4 and all-star special is $10 and it makes things a little bit more easier and efficient, so I'm happy that they do this. I mean, anyone that's out here working right now, they deserve good tips. You got to treat them really well. Real simple order. Two pecan waffles, hash brown, sausage, coffee, and orange juice. I'm good to go. That's all I need. A couple of cool facts to throw out about Waffle House. They don't have a POS system. They actually call everything out and they have a special system to mark the plates to let people know what goes on which plate, which is kind of fast and I think they aim for like under five minutes like on their check time, so it's really fast. Good food fast, you know. Every Waffle House has one of these touch-tune machines too and they have their own music on here. Oh yeah, Waffle Records right here. Look at this and these are all like songs that Waffle House produced. I feel good. What is this one? I feel good at the Waffle House. Sounds like a fancy song right there, but they have tons of different ones. I love that. Isn't that so cool? A lot of people don't even know. I mean they have regular music too, but they have their own Waffle House label. Look at this piping hot coffee right here. Just what we need. A little cream. A little sugar. Definitely need the sugar. Yeah, I almost got you there. That's salt. That's the stuff we need. That's the good stuff. That's hitting the spot right there. That's what you need. Believe it or not, this isn't my first time vlogging here at a Waffle House. How crazy is that? And here it is. Look at this. The Waffle House classic or the Paging Mr. Morrow Waffle House classic. I love these pecan waffles. I think they're so good. The sausage, the hash brown. Let's just take a look to see. Look at these. Precious beauties. So good. Also, I got a little hidden Mickey happening here too. It's important you got to put a little bit of syrup on there. Not a lot of syrup. Just a little bit of syrup. Not a lot. Just a little. Not a lot. Just a little. Just a little tiny pinch of syrup and that's all you need. Just a little bit. Just a little. And you always have to do the combination bite. A little bit of everything. Just like that. Perfection. And of course, you got to get a little hash brown action in there. A little hash browns, a little pecans. This is so good. Let me know if you guys have ever eaten at a Waffle House. I mean, it's like a staple and like I said, it's the go-to food for hurricane season here. It's the only food. I also like how Waffle House has very thin waffles. I don't like the Belgian style waffles. I like these little thinny, thin, thins. They're very good. Like, you know what I mean? The Belgian ones are too fluffy. You know, I like the little thin crispness. I'm throwing in the towel. I only have like two bites of waffle left. Can't do it though. So good. I needed that. I've been eating a lot of soup. Waffle House did the trick. So amazing. And the whole entire crew was so fun and lively. You can tell that it was getting very stressful for them. There was a line out the door probably 24-7. They never closed. So during the worst part of the hurricane, Waffle House was open. I mean, in this area it was open. I know that a lot of them closed down by the coast, but it's still a lot. And the food was amazing. I always love a good Waffle House trip. I think you guys know that. Now I'm going to hop in the car and drive through Disney and see what it's like, you know? Also, we got to check on Gracie. You want to come out and go to the bathroom? Huh? You want to come out and go to the bathroom? Come on. Let's go. Let me see. Come on. Gracie is my dog and it was really rough on her because I couldn't get her to go outside and go pee or go to the bathroom and she wouldn't do it in the house. So she just sat there very uncomfortable. I think the last time I got her to go to the bathroom was around four o'clock. And then I immediately took her out this morning at six. I tried several times in between, but it was so windy and the sound and the rain, she literally like would get down from the stairs and just run back up and she wasn't having it. So now she's feeling a lot better, but I'm happy that we had each other to comfort each other. You know what I mean? She does not like this at all. Come on, Gracie girl. Let's go. She doesn't like getting rained on. Number one. And she hates the sound of the wind right now. It's not too rainy and it's not too windy, but she doesn't like it. Oh, we got some trees down over here. Trees down at Gracie's dog park. Come on, Fifi. Let me let you go. Hold on here. Go. That's far enough, huh? Right there. Yep. I don't blame you. It's okay. Oh, here comes the rain. Oh, it's coming. It's coming. Let's go. Come on. We got to get out of here. Come on, Gracie. Hop in. We did it. Now it's time. We actually go drive around Walt Disney World a little bit. Now I'm not going to go like explore at the resorts and stuff like that. Just drive up the main road and probably back down. I know that they're doing super cheap, affordable meals for people that are staying at the resorts, which is really good because if you're staying at a resort, you really don't want to be paying $59 to go eat at like Beaumont or Chef Mickey's. I hear they're doing it like $20, which is amazing because like I said, a lot of people come to Disney for like, you know, like rescue for to get away from the coast. So Disney is known for helping people out and doing amazing hurricane rates and also for cast members that are working around the clock on hurricane duty. They're actually staying in the resort itself. So I want to go, you know, use up any of the resources there. I'd rather just kind of drive up and down and see what it's like and, you know, just kind of assess it. You know what I mean? And show you guys at the same time. Here we go. We're coming up under the Walt Disney World archway. I don't know if you can see it too good because of the wipers, but there she is. The most magical place on earth. Now I did hear that Epcot had some severe flooding and it looks like they closed down the roadway here. Yeah, look, I could see the flooding on the outside. Wow. Oh, actually we have some dropped signs here too. Look it. Holy moly. Looks like all the lights are on for the Magic Kingdom. All green lights. Oh, you can see the tarps actually blowing too. I don't know if they're going to have people here to check us or not. We'll see. I don't know. Nope. I think we're just strolling right on up. Welcome to Magic Kingdom. Please proceed to your destination. Thank you. Here are all of the campers from Fort Wilderness. They actually brought them all over here and parked them at the Magic Kingdom. Probably a lot better to be here than actually over there. There's a little bit more of a controlled environment, but that's really cool. At least they had a plan in place, you know. I didn't realize there was that many people like camping out at Fort Wilderness right now. That's a lot. One of the things that I just noticed is they took away all of the skyliners because of the weather, because of the hurricane. And I kind of was just driving by and I was like, wait, there's no skyliners in the air. So there's no skyliners in the air. It's literally just empty. And I haven't seen it like that since they were first built. We're here at the Speedway gas station next to the boardwalk in Epcot. And you can see there's nothing, nothing up there. No skyliners in sight. And it goes all the way down. So they're all probably at that central location, just sitting there. That is so, like, I never even thought about it because this is the first year there's a hurricane with the skyliner, I believe. As I was driving around, it didn't seem like there was a lot of, like, damage damage, which is really good. I'm very happy about that. And I hope it's the same for a lot of places out there. Now I think we're just going to go back to hanging out at the house. I mean, there's nothing you can really do right now. Everything is still closed in preparation. Most of it will start opening back up. I think Disney is set to open back up tomorrow, along with Disney Springs. And yeah, I mean, I want to spend more time with my Gracie girl. I'm so happy I had her. She literally cuddled me all night and I was like, oh, it's okay. You know what I mean? She's like, dad, dad. She was like right on me. Every time you heard like the war of the hurricane, she's like just pressing up against me and I just felt so warm. So we're going to go back and check in with her. And would you look at this? The moth is still here. Holy moly. I don't know if I should touch it. Oh, it just moved. It's still alive. It's just hanging out here seeking refuge from the hurricane. What'd you think, Grace? I think this was Gracie's second hurricane. Was this your second hurricane? This one was fun, huh? You want a treat? You want a cookie? Cookie? You going to take it and run? Oh no, you can eat it right there, huh? That's how you make my carpet all crummy. And I guess with that, we are all done here. Like I said, I pray for everyone that was affected by the hurricane. And I know there's still going to be some time to get things fixed back up. It's going to take some time and people have to go through their insurance agencies, whether it be home or car or anything like that. And just good luck. Absolutely. I'm so lucky that we really weren't affected by it here. We didn't even lose power. I was real shocked by that. And yeah, it was another hurricane down in the books here in Florida. I'm sure I'm going to come across a lot more. This is one of the things you have to take as a caution when you decide whether or not you want to move to Florida. But I love my life. I love living down here. You know, I do. So I hope you guys enjoyed the video. Like I said, I don't know if I'm going to keep it up, but I wanted to just give you guys a quick look at it and let you guys know me and Gracie are okay. We did okay. And yeah, so I hope you guys enjoyed the video. Disney and the park should be opening up soon and everything should be getting back to normal. We'll see you next time. Bye.