Furniture store owner turns businesses into shelters for Harvey evacuees

HOUSTON — A cornerstone of the Houston community has opened its doors to those who need it most after the flooding left over from Hurricane Harvey.

Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale opened his furniture stores, Gallery Furniture, to evacuees, and he's doing it because the community helped him when he needed it most after someone set fire to his store's warehouse in 2009, KENS reported.

Now he’s helping out his community, housing 400 adults and children in his two Houston-area stores. He’s also feeding them all for free.

McIngvale also used 24-foot trucks that would be able to navigate the flooded areas to rescue people throughout Houston.

"Sitting in a perfectly normal house one day and then, 10 minutes later you've got three feet of water in it. So, it's very stressful and we're trying to help them out because they've done so much for us over the years," McIngvale told KENS.

This isn't the first time McIngvale has helped out those who needed it. He gives rooms full of furniture to those who need them for Christmas. He also gave shelter to 200 evacuees after Hurricane Katrina, KENS reported.

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