The effect of the drought is that there is some kind of migration to the south. In the Mesoamerican region, there is a movement of Zoquean speakers southward. There is next to nothing known of the reasons for that migration, but those movements southward are the plausible explanation for why the later Mulekites may have also followed those routes southward to arrive in Zarahemla after landing on a coast.
As with the drought in Nephi’s (son of Helaman) time, the people eventually turn to God, and God restores the rains.
This is not the end of a chapter in the 1830 edition.