Businesses become storm shelters in Texas

Associated Press

HOUSTON

Of all the places that have been turned into shelters for Hurricane Harvey victims – a megachurch, a ballpark, a gas station, a bowling alley, among them – the one with the most comfortable sleeping arrangements surely must be the Gallery Furniture showroom.

Owner Jim McIngvale, better known as Mattress Mack, threw open a couple of his stores to anyone in need, offering food, clean bathrooms and, of course, luxury bedding.

“If this is what you call a shelter, I might not want to go home,” said 47-year-old India Jackson, who marveled at the silky pillowcases, the $1,000 mattresses and the atrium with its live ocelot and colorful macaws.

With more than 17,000 people flooded out of their houses, big-hearted Texans, religious institutions and businesses have turned their places into unlikely shelters, offering soaked, frightened and disconsolate storm refugees – two-legged and four-legged alike – a safe and warm place to sleep.

Some of these places have proved a homier alternative to the convention centers that have taken in more than 10,000.

At Gallery Furniture in Richmond, just outside Houston, a clown and a face-painter delighted the children Wednesday. On Tuesday, an out-of-state businessman ordered a lamb chop dinner from a fine Houston restaurant for the roughly 150 people at the store.

To relieve evacuees’ stress, employees direct them to a meditation area, with soft music and a thousand-gallon fish tank with sharks, stingrays and exotic fish.

“Mattress Mack. He’s the most loving person in Houston,” Jackson said. “He turned his store into a resort for refugees.”

And the pampering didn’t stop at people.

A pet groomer was there Wednesday, offering to clean up any soggy dogs in need of a bath or haircut.

In hard-hit Port Arthur, near the Louisiana line, the Max Bowl bowling alley hosted roughly 500 Port Arthur residents, plus 50 to 100 dogs. And a lizard. And a monkey.

Airbnb extended for a month its disaster relief program, which began in Houston before Harvey hit and was supposed to run only until Thursday. The program allows Airbnb hosts to offer housing free of charge and helps match available rooms with evacuees.

Many residents whose homes stayed dry invited flooded-out friends, family and neighbors to stay. Others offered to host complete strangers.