LEE COUNTY, Fla. — On Sept. 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian made a hard turn, slamming directly into Lee County. The winds and the storm surge ripped homes to the slab, turning personal artifacts into splintered remains scattered for miles.
The idea that someone's home and items could be destroyed so fast is not lost on Renae Corvi.
"When we first saw these homes. You know, you look at them, you think, 'Oh my God, what happened to these people?'" Corvi said to ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska.
Corvi's husband is a general contractor. One day, she visited a work site in Matlacha and decided to talk and explore the area.
"I was walking through the mangroves, which I loved. They looked so beautiful from afar, but when I came up on them and got closer, the roots of the mangroves became like an abstract painting. Like the more I looked at, the more I found kitchen drawers, toys, clothing, fishing poles, and coolers," Corvi recounted. "There was like all these lives entwined together, and you couldn't help but wonder, you know; did they lose their homes or did they lose their lives?"
Corvi decided to pull out the debris and take some home.
"I cleaned them all up and upcycled them into a little time capsule table that is wood with legs that are entwined. And I just started inserting all the pieces from St. James City and Matlacha," Corvi said.
According to the website "Upcycle That," it is "the act of taking something no longer in use and giving it a second life and new function. In doing so, the finished product often becomes more practical, valuable, and beautiful than what it previously was."
"Is seeing that debris on that table a good thing for people?" Paluska asked.
"I thought about that. And then I thought, you know what it will be because they're going to look at the table, and they're going to be like, 'wow, look how far we came,'" Corvi said. "It's better than not being here at all."
