Saint James City neighbors create art from hurricane destruction

Published: Updated:

Many who pass through Saint James City see this as just leftovers from a hundred-year storm but not Floyd Cornett.

He looked at the destruction from Hurricane Ian and saw art.

“I came through, and I thought, ‘Man, those look like a bunch of fish to me,'” said Cornett. “‘Maybe we could do something to beautify the community,’ and we got it done with a lot of help.”

This is what those neighbors turned a few broken tree stumps into:

The art pieces bring light to an area that saw a lot of darkness just two years ago.

“I got our friend Jan, who does the bright colors, and she came in and painted,” said Cornett. “I think we had 100 houses replaced, at least, and water in almost every home, so just total renovation for the whole area.”

“When you came into this area, like many areas in Pine Island, you couldn’t get on the streets. Everything was blown away. Everything was blown away, and the water, the surge, I mean, it was just unbelievable, the cleanup that had to happen,” said Janice Todd.

With Cornett’s vision and creativity, the same place where neighbors used to see reminders of the storm is now the place they go to forget about the problems it left behind.

“It’s very calming too, you know, and it takes our mind off,” said neighbor Mark Stevens. “So Floyd and I come up here and stuff, and instead of working on our homes, trying to rebuild them, we came up here, and it was like nice and calm.”

Their art shows that an idea, paired with a couple of neighbors and a fighting spirit, can turn a whole lot of bad into beauty.

Copyright ©2025 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.