After Katrina completely destroyed my business in Biloxi, I loaded up my 1984 Mercedes and headed for D/FW with a tiny bit of assistance from the Feds. Been fine since then.
My next-door neighbor (here in the Philly area) is from Biloxi. When Katrina wiped the place out, she loaded up her horse trailer with barrels of gasoline and stacks of food and other goods and drove them down to help her family (several related families, actually).
I have always been proud of the way real Americans handled the tremendous adversity brought on by Katrina in Mississippi. I never heard any whining, never heard any gimme gimme gimme free stuff, never heard it was a racist conspiracy. The people there just took responsibility for their own rebuilding or took responsibility for figuring out their own ‘Plan B’, like you did.
The contrast with the Democrat welfare-staters of New Orleans is as stark as can possibly be.
That's how you do it. And welcome to Texas. Garage sales, pawn shops. God knows people have a LOT of possessions.