Mattress store owner shelters Hurricane Beryl victims

(NewsNation) — Houston business owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale has opened his mattress store as a shelter for those affected by Hurricane Beryl in Texas. 

Hurricane Beryl battered parts of Texas this week, leaving millions of people without power. Heavy rain caused floods on Monday, leading McIngvale to open his store to those in need.

McIngvale owns the Houston-based retail chain Gallery Furniture. Monday morning, the store announced it would be open for people in need of food, electricity and cooling off from the Texas heat. 

McIngvale told NewsNation’s “Morning in America” that after seeing the weather forecast, he decided to sleep at the store Sunday night so he could jump into action Monday morning. 

“Sure enough, Monday the streets got flooded and people needed to be rescued. We have a high water truck here so we went out and rescued people,” McIngvale said.

On Monday and Tuesday, McIngvale’s store fed about 3,000 people and has been a place where those in the community can charge electronics and stay out of the heat. 

More than 1.7 million people are without power in the Texas summer heat as of Wednesday morning. At its peak, 2.7 million people were without electricity.

“We’re all so dependent on electricity to power our homes and air conditioning, especially in Texas in 100-degree heat,” McIngvale said. “We’re welcoming the people in to eat and cool off and there’s quite a demand.”

The community response to Gallery Furniture opening its doors as a shelter has been “tremendous” according to McIngvale.

“The people have been great, they’re very gracious when they come in here and it’s an honor to be able to serve because these are our people and we gotta take care of the community,” McIngvale said.