the gospel according to mack

5 ways Houston is stronger after Harvey, as told by Mattress Mack

McIngvale spent approximately $10 million to help Houstonians.

Photo courtesy of Gallery Furniture

As someone who once donned an actual mattress while waving a wad of cash on television, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale doesn’t like to take himself too seriously. A surefire way to get under his skin, however, is to call him a certain word: hero.

“Hell, no. I’m not a hero,” he says, quickly shifting from jovial to dead-serious. “Look, I’m a huckster. The heroes are the first responders — the firemen, the policemen, the EMTs. Those are the heroes.”

But last year, as Hurricane Harvey dumped 27 trillion gallons of rain on Texas and flooded, by estimates, one-third of Houston, McIngvale took action. His beloved Gallery Furniture store (famously located at I-45 North at Tidwell and Parker) became an emergency shelter, taking in displaced Houstonians.

Gallery Furniture employees, en route to work, picked up stranded locals and brought them to the center. McIngvale enlisted anyone with a commercial driver’s license to drive Gallery Furniture trucks and help in rescue efforts. His Post Oak location became a giant donation drop-off point.

“It was simple: The town was flooding,” McIngvale recalls. “People were gonna drown, so we let ’em in. There’s nothing more to it than that, you know. We’ve always put people before profit, and that ain’t gonna change. If it does change, I deserve to go to hell in a hand basket.”

When it was all over, hundreds of evacuees and first responders had utilized Gallery Furniture as a rescue or command hub. And when McIngvale wasn’t directing recovery efforts, he was writing checks.

“I’d say I spent around ten million total when you add everything up.”

Since the storm, McIngvale has been called a “savior,” with a petition for his own day, and even graffiti in his honor. He has been (wishfully) mentioned as the next mayor of Houston. “Tell them I’m running for ‘Furniture Man,’” he retorts with a laugh. And as much as he bristles, he’s been called a hero. “But the heroes are the people who got flooded and were brave and resilient throughout the entire ordeal,” he insists.

McIngvale feels that Harvey tested Houston’s mettle. “That was our moment of truth,” he says. ‘Valor is a gift,’ Carl Sandburg once said. ‘Those who have not never know whether or not they have it until the moment comes.’ Well, our moment came.”

Despite the tragedy and devastation, Houston, having its moment, is actually stronger, McIngvale says. Here, then, is how it’s stronger, post-Harvey — straight from the legendary pitchman and philanthropist himself.

It taught us that unity is community
Human beings were made to live, work, play, and die in groups. And the further we get away from that fact, the more we screw things up. People now live in isolated groups. The average size of a U.S. household now is less than three. People are lonely. They want to be together with other people, and I think Hurricane Harvey taught us there is truly unity in community.

Volunteering is good for mental health
People feel better about themselves. They feel better about the community. They feel better about life and it sets off endorphins that help their mental health.

Crisis teaches us more than happy times
The Hurricane Harvey ordeal taught us all how to fight. When I say fight, I mean fight for people’s lives, fight for our state, fight for our property. You know, the force was Mother Nature, obviously, but how to fight and how to be resilient.

We gotta get up off our ass and do something about this flooding problem
So, we pass the bond proposal — 80 percent. We never had that kind of margin before. We gotta do something with all this water. We gotta solve the problem rather than keep ignoring it.

It taught us that life matters and people matter
At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. All this money, all this wealth, all this bullshit ain’t nothing — people matter. Lives matter. Houstonians love Houston and Texans love this state, and, you know, we truly are Texas strong. Even though that’s a slogan, people come in here every day and say, “We’re proud to have you in our city. We appreciate the way Houston represented itself during Harvey.”

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pet protection

What Texas pet owners need to know about the dangerous New World screwworm

Photo by Helena Jankovičová Kováčová/Pexels

Make sure these guys are up on their flea and tick meds.

Two New World screwworm cases in dogs are among more than 30 confirmed instances in Texas and New Mexico, prompting warnings Wednesday, July 8 from veterinarians and humane societies that pet owners need to remain vigilant to protect their animals.

The parasite reappeared in cattle in the U.S. in June, more than 50 years after it had been largely eradicated from the country. The pest is actually the larvae of the New World screwworm fly. It eats live flesh and fluids rather than dead material, as the larvae of most fly species do.

Here is what to know about the parasite, the threat it poses to pets and how to protect them:

Screwworm fly larvae can infest any mammal
The fly's migration north from Panama starting in 2024, and through Mexico in 2025, has agriculture officials warning that it poses a threat to the $113 billion U.S. cattle industry, but the larvae can hatch and breed in any mammal, including wildlife, dogs, cats and occasionally humans.

The problem develops when a female fly lays its eggs in open wounds and mucus. After the eggs hatch, the larvae feed for about a week before maturing, dropping to the ground and continuing to develop into an adult fly.

The American Veterinary Medical Association says newborn animals and animals with open wounds or who have undergone surgery or other medical procedures recently are especially vulnerable. Even a tick bite can host an infestation, Aaron Grady, executive director of the Houston Humane Society shelter, said during a webinar on the screwworm.

Screwworm fly The goal is to stop these flies from successfully breeding.Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture

Infestation signs include restlessness and bad smell
Animal health experts say pet owners in areas where the screwworm is present — southern and southwestern Texas and southeastern New Mexico so far — should watch their animals closely and examine them for wounds, cuts and bites regularly.

Pet owners should look for any maggots or movement in a wound. Other signs include a foul smell and restlessness or anxiety in an animal, or an animal “hyper-fixating on looking or chewing in a certain area of the body," said Melissa Stansell, a veterinarian at the shelter Austin Pets Alive!

Any one of those is reason enough to go to a veterinarian. The affected animal is likely in a great deal of pain, and that can cause death from shock. The larvae also can cause death if they move into vital organs or by causing infections that turn deadly.

Flea, tick medications can stop an infestation
Humane society officials and veterinarians said shelters across Texas are trying to prevent infestations in animals by giving them prescription flea and tick medications. They recommend that pet owners do the same.

“It will kill the larvae as they ingest the blood and tissue,” Stansell said. “The chemical compositions of those products are what kill the actual larval stages of these flies.”

Veterinarians also can treat infestations and animals can recover if pet owners contact them quickly. Stansell said the treatment could include antibiotics.

“It is only fatal if left untreated,” she said.

An effort to eradicate the fly again is underway
The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species and decades ago would disappear each year when colder weather arrived with the fall or winter.

But state and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials aren't waiting for the weather to turn. They've returned to an eradication method that worked decades ago, breeding sterile male flies and releasing them into the wild. The female New World screwworm fly mates once in her monthslong life, and if her partner is sterile, her eggs won't hatch — causing the population in an area to drop and then disappear.

For years, the only factory breeding sterile flies in the Western Hemisphere was in Panama, but the USDA invested $21 million to convert a site in southern Mexico from breeding fruit flies to recently start breeding screwworm flies. The agency also plans to spend $750 million on a new fly factory in Texas, set to open next year.

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