Texas 7th Grade ELA Question of the Day

Clouds stacked like slate over the Gulf, and by noon the wind had already taught the live oaks to bow. On Seawall Boulevard, Mrs. Alvarez tightened the plywood over her cafe windows and pretended not to notice the ache in her hands; she was worried about the refrigerator, about the shrimp she'd bought on credit. Two blocks inland, her grandson Leo watched the same sky from his bedroom, counting between flashes to guess the distance. He liked storms, the way the world showed its muscles — but he also pictured water creeping across the tiles, lifting his comics like boats. Out on the causeway, Officer Randle eyed the line of cars and wished he could promise everyone they'd chosen the right time to leave. He thought of his own mother refusing to go, insisting her house had survived worse. The storm moved steadily, indifferent. It would test roofs and nerves, and none of them could see how the night would braid their worries together into the same story by morning.

What point of view is used, and how does it affect the reader's understanding of events and characters?