ARIPEKA, Fla. — If you want to check out a piece of old Florida, you don’t need a time machine: you just need to go to Aripeka Stone Crab Company, something Karri Holliday takes pride in.

What You Need To Know

  • Aripeka Stone Crab Company saw a decent amount of damage from Hurricane Helene

  • The business lost coolers, refrigerators and other storage units after seeing over six feet of storm surge

  • They've been able to quickly restore the business to being fully operational, despite not being able to initially put all their crab traps in the gulf because of Milton

  • Stone Crab season began on Oct. 5 and goes through May 1

“It's just a dream,” Holliday, who co-owns the business with her husband, said. “Just living the dream.”

The business has been in her family since her dad opened it up in the 80s.

Holliday was also a Weeki Wachee mermaid, so she has a wide array of skills, though some, she says, are debatable.

“If there's any chefs watching me do this, please forgive me,” Holliday joked while chopping up tomatoes. “I'm probably not a ‘Certified Chef Chopper.’”

It’s a laid back and welcoming atmosphere where stone crab is king, but that atmosphere was threatened with Hurricane Helene.

“When we opened the doors, it was just complete chaos," Holliday said.

If you go outside and see where their boat is docked, you can see how high the surge got just a month ago.

“About six feet,” Holliday said. “And the tide doesn't come up to the dock. It's like two feet below the dock. So, it was roughly about an eight-foot surge.”

They lost their refrigerators, coolers and other storage units on Sept. 26, with stone crab season just over a week away.

“The next day, we were ordering refrigerators, coolers,” Holliday said. “I mean, we got rocked. Our ice machine, we still haven't found it. It's somewhere that way, as well as our refrigerator that we have for our own personal use.”

They wasted no time trying to put over 5,000 of their traps out in the gulf. But then came Hurricane Milton.

“We put out right after the surge with Helene, and then, the boat we had to take off, so we didn't get to finish the rest of dropping our traps,” Holliday said. “It was extremely mentally difficult for everybody.”

Then, there was a cold front which fishermen said with off-camera say made a big impact on how many crabs were caught.

But, through drive and determination to be ready to go for the season, Holliday says the traps they placed before the storm have been successful.

“You can't let this hold you back,” she said. “You got to just keep on moving forward and just know that it will be better.”

Now, all the traps are in and so are the customers.

While Mother Nature forced a slower start to this stone crab season, the folks at Aripeka aren’t letting that get them down.

Their spirits are high and their love for this piece of old Florida is unwavering.

According to Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 99 percent of all stone crab landings in the United States are found in Florida.

Stone crab season started on Oct. 5 and ends on May 1.