Faddi Aref remembers well that dark Aug. 29 day last year when he entered Mike’s Furniture, which has been in the family’s ownership for almost two decades.

“It’s over,” he said, wading through a couple of feet of Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey floodwater.

Aref, 33, who’d worked at the store as a boy and as a student, took over that family business eight years ago. That was when his dad Mike handed him the keys.

Now, with Harvey behind him, he saw nothing but 15,000 square feet of wet merchandise. Things were the same in the nearby warehouse, where some 5,000 square feet of furniture had been damaged.

Someone was taking video in the store and caught images of him, crestfallen, walking through the dark ruins of what had been the principal source of income for himself and his family. He had no flood insurance.

Worse still, Aref, who has built and sold homes on the side for five years, had four homes under construction or for sale in Port Arthur and Orangefield. All four flooded with no flood insurance to back them up.

“We lost everything here,” he said seven months later, seated at a dining table and chairs in the midst of a fully stocked store of new merchandise. Things had looked bleak back then, but not now.

“I walked in here, cried it out a little and went home,” he recalled this week.

But the sadness didn’t last long.

Merchandise giveaway

Aref, who with his wife Alia was awaiting the imminent birth of their first son, took stock of his own situation. His home near Jimmy Johnson Boulevard had been damaged. He walked through the remnants of the store, determined what could be salvaged and what was unharmed. And he took stock of his hometown of Port Arthur, and how badly others were hurting here.

Then he decided to hold a merchandise giveaway of a sort rarely seen in this city.

Most of the merchandise got wet, he said, but a “lot of stuff I could have kept and sold.” But he didn’t.

Somewhere in his mind, he decided that if he were generous his hometown, too, would remember its own generosity, which he always appreciated. He contacted an old friend at Port Arthur Police Department and told him what he was planning, a public giveaway on Sept. 2 of his store’s usable furniture from his Memorial Boulevard store.

“We could have saved about 50-60 percent of the warehouse,” he said. Some items were stacked high or atop other items, and escaped the water’s harm.

“I could have just put stuff out there” and sought reduced payments in return, he said.

“But I didn’t want money. If I were going to start over, I’d rather give it away,” he said.

“He has a huge heart, of course,” said Port Arthur Police Sgt. Patrick Britton, a longtime family friend who has known Aref — the middle of seven children — and his brothers “all my life.” He said he was surprised but not too surprised when Aref told him what he had planned and asked him to help on the giveaway day. Britton was all in to help.

New inventory was ordered. On “giveaway day,” huge crowds lined Memorial Boulevard in both directions and left with needed items that were positioned out front of the store.

In all, he said, Mike’s Furniture might have given away $350,000 in merchandise.

“That was a lot,” he said, “for a little business like mine.”

Store reopening

Aref planned a Sept. 21 reopening at Mike’s furniture and to meet that deadline he had to move fast. He got by with lots of help, perhaps “50 or 60 friends” including business associates who helped him demo the property, prepare it for painting, and painted. He and his employees and friends cleaned out the store and warehouse and prepared for new stock.

Tony Nguyen, owner of Reel Cajun and Diamond Sports Bar and Grill, was one of the friends who helped him “demo” the furniture store.

“It was terrifying, to see one of your great friends, his family business so damaged,” Nguyen said.

But Aref said he relied on his friends and they delivered.

“With me working in homebuilding, (tradespeople) took care of me really quickly.

“Framers came in and gutted the store, and didn’t ask for money. A cabinetmaker made that cabinet for me and only asked for cost. Our painter would work all day at his job, then come in here to paint and just asked me to (pay for) his employees.”

Aref’s own employees prepped the furniture room floor to get it repainted. The women who worked the front counters set up company computers outside and started working on customer accounts.  They reached out to customers to let them know their orders would get filled.

Got to do more

“We got a crazy amount of support from the community,” he said. “People came in and said we were the only place they wanted to shop.”

In the middle of the craziness, he said, his son Zayne was born — Sept. 16. It was, he said, a bittersweet time: On one hand, he worried about the business; on the other, he rejoiced in the birth of his son. Somewhere in his mind he determined he should do more for the community.

At Thanksgiving, he partnered up with Britton again for a turkey giveaway. During Thanksgiving week, he gave out a “truckload” of turkeys from his store.

In February, driving in Bridge City, he decided to do some more furniture donations. He and Britton and others set up a social media campaign, seeking families who still needed furniture to write about their needs. They selected three families in need, invited them to the store and on Feb. 24 supplied them with new furniture for their houses.

“As a business owner,” he said, “We’re obligated to help people out. We can’t be expected to put all profits in our pocket and not give back.

“Just as the community keeps you in business, you’ve got to make sure you take care of the community, as well.”

“He’s walking in his dad’s footsteps,” Nguyen, a friend for 15 years, said. “Mike, his dad, has always been good to the community. It shows because of the support the community has given them businesswise.”

“It’s pretty amazing when someone loses everything and is still able to help other people.”

Bouncing back

Early on, business was slow. There were customers, but many had ordered furniture before the storm.

But as autumn wore on, more shoppers showed up. By Christmas season, the store’s business was brisk.

Business has been good, he said, because “lots of people need furniture.”

His home construction business has picked up, too, as his crews have taken on some remodeling in addition to building new homes. He repaired and sold the four new houses he built.

Looking back, Aref said, he’s learned this from his Muslim faith: God is watching.

“The more good you do, it comes back to you 10 times better.”

“Overall, Muslims are very giving people,” he said. “It’s in our faith.”

He said his brothers, Joe and Sameer, both in the furniture business in Beaumont, have done the same. They’ve given away “truckloads” of mattresses to those affected by Harvey.

“Our parents taught us to always be giving,” he said.

“I’ve been blessed. I’m glad it’s behind us. I’m back on my feet, but there are still a lot of people far from recovered.”

This story appeared in Volume 3 of The Port Arthur News Profile, April 22, 2018