Live updates on Hurricane Helene: Category three storm makes landfall in Florida

Nadine Yousif
North America 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 just a few hours.

He told me that he had spent the last few days protecting his oyster farm by sinking it to the bottom of the ocean.

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

“Hopefully, and nothing is certain, the farm is nice and safe on the ground,” he said. “But anything could happen.”

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

The city is also in the hurricane’s forecast path and has not experienced a storm of this magnitude recently.

“It’s pretty much a ghost town right now. Everything is closed. Everything is boarded up,” he said.

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