An inside look at Waffle House’s Hurricane Dorian war room

This may look like the National Hurricane Center, but the people in this room have only one thing on their minds: keeping the waffle irons hot!

The honchos at Waffle House — whose closures are used by FEMA to gauge the severity of natural disasters with a so-called “Waffle House Index” — huddled in their war room Friday tracking Hurricane Dorian as it barreled toward Florida.

The 24-hour Southern breakfast chain enlisted a team of weather experts at its Georgia-based “storm room” to decide if they should shutter any restaurants, a rep for the firm said.

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The officials were glued to the Weather Channel, along with hyper-focused storm tracking software, as they munched a lunch of patty melts, grilled chicken sandwiches and — what else? — waffles from the restaurant, said public relations director Pat Warner.

But they ultimately decided, along with regional vice presidents, to wait until the weekend to make a call on whether to close shop.

He said the decision is based almost entirely on if government officials issue evacuation orders in neighborhoods that are home to the eatery, which are usually open 365 days a year.

“We take let the state and county take the lead,” Warner said. “Right now we’re watching the storm, waiting it out and getting teams ready for what they might need to.”

The category 2 storm was spinning toward Florida with winds up to 105 mph Friday — and was expected to strike land on Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The Waffle House Index, which began with Hurricane Charley in 2004, includes “color codes” assigned by FEMA to measure the most ravaged areas.

FEMA tags open restaurants green, ones with a limited menus yellow and closed locations red.

There were no plans to scale back menu items on Friday.

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