The trickle-down effect from the storm is expected, but it will catch many people outside of Houston by surprise.

Today in the Hispanic grocery store where I buy a lot of my produce I told the clerk that this year's crop of mangoes are magnificent. I ate several last week and was back for more. She pointed out that their warehouses for their produce are in Houston. Anything that has to come out of Houston probably won't move, and anything that is shipping to Houston probably will sit offshore a while, and there goes the produce. Just a guess on some of the operations of that port, but as the general road system is messed up (and most stuff moves out of there on trucks), we're all going to be feeling this for a while.

Schools will start late, and schools are obligated to educate children, so if families evacuate to other Texas cities they will be put in schools, and they will ride buses from shelters to the appropriate schools, as necessary.

When Katrina hit New Orleans there were lots of evacuees in the North Texas area, and I volunteered at the local Salvation Army in the afternoons to help people with computer use, setting up email, finding sites where they need to register, fill out forms, etc.. I met a family I stuck with helping for a while, who fled the rising waters packed into a couple of cars. Three adult sisters, their children, a couple of grandbabies, and their elderly mother. A local church put them up for a few weeks, and by the time they were able to make the choice about returning or resettling here with housing vouchers, the main sister I worked with, named Sandra, decided to stay in Texas, and most of the family stayed with her. She would wax nostalgic when talking about the differences between New Orleans and Texas, the climate, the look (the huge trees in Louisiana), the food, etc. but her elementary school-aged daughter started school and liked the new school and was making friends. That was enough to convince Sandra to stay put.

There will be lots of changes ahead. Many will pull up stakes and move away from the coast. Businesses will close for a while, or fail entirely. Others will pick up the slack. Criminals will descend on the area like fleas on a dog, and people will have to be vigilant to avoid crooked contractors offering to work on homes, and all of the fly-by-night "services" that will try to pop up. Many people will no longer have cars and will be unable to get to work. Unemployment is going to be a huge problem for a while. The poor and middle class will be affected the worst. Those without flood insurance are shit-out-of-luck, but those with it will find that inspectors are often corrupt and they'll need lawyers to get companies to pay what they are supposed to through the government program. It has been underfunded for years and the scandals after Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey and New York revealed many of the problems.

Trump is clueless. Hopefully that fool will stay out of the way and finally find people who actually know how to do their jobs to work on this big one.