Nadine Yousif
North American reporter

Cainnon Gregg works as an oyster farmer in Wakulla County on Florida’s Big Bend, where Hurricane Helene is expected to make landfall in a few hours.

He told me that in recent days he had been trying to protect his oyster farm by sinking it to the ocean floor.

It was once destroyed during Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 hurricane that hit the Florida Panhandle in 2018, and Gregg said he’s determined to learn from that lesson.

“Hopefully, and nothing is certain, the farm will be nice and safe on the bottom,” he said. “But anything can happen.”

To weather the storm, Gregg will hole up in his hometown of Tallahassee with a friend who has a place to stay.

The city is also in the expected path of the hurricane and has never experienced a storm of this magnitude in recent history.

“Right now it’s basically a ghost town. Everything is closed. Everything is boarded up.” he said.

“Even Waffle House is closed,” he added, referring to the ubiquitous American restaurant chain known for being open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, rain or shine.