
This week’s post is a follow-up on two posts: last week’s, when I talked about flash floods in central Texas; and another where I talked about a biopsy and storms.
Briefly, the sore on my leg looked awful, but was “benign”.
The situation in central Texas is still very bad news: the number of known dead is upwards of 100 now. Someone in emergency services tried getting a warning out. But then — it looks like something went badly wrong.
- Living in the Upper Midwest: Last Month’s Storms
- Biopsy and Good News
- Central Texas Flash Floods: Waiting for a Supervisor’s Approval?
- So What?
Living in the Upper Midwest: Last Month’s Storms

(“What a Weekend!” (June 22, 2025)
I haven’t learned anything more about damage in Sauk Centre from June’s storm. Folk living in and near “Eagle’s Healing Nest” and elsewhere on the north side apparently got the debris cleared okay.
Up on the Red River Valley1 homestead where our number-two daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, and number-one daughter live, getting the mill running again wasn’t a huge issue. Getting the roof repaired/replaced, on the other hand, will be a job.
And I learned that they’ll need to repair/replace the door, too. It’s one of those oversize industrial garage door things. That, and sealing what number-two daughter called “exit holes”, where wind-blown stuff went through the walls — that job is more, I gather, a matter of applying patches.
But the main thing is that NOBODY GOT HURT, and all the critters are okay. They’ve got a kennel on the property, nearer the house: the dogs spent time in the house while the storm was in progress.
What’s remarkable is that there wasn’t more damage. That’s very likely due to the roof that our son-in-law is building being in the right place, at the right angle.
Folks in the Red River Valley area experienced a derecho. Depending on who’s talking, it was category 2 or 3. In other words, the homestead had 115+ mile an hour winds. Small wonder part of the mill roof peeled back.
But another roof, the one son-in-law has been building for a chapel, was in the right place at the right angle. VERY likely, it deflected winds and debris, or “the whole roof might have gone”, as number-two daughter put it.
Biopsy and Good News
A few days before the storms, June 19, 2025, I got a treat of sorts: a biopsy. Which is a fancy way of saying a doctor took a pinhead-size sample of skin from one of my legs.
Calling that a “treat” probably sounds weird. But I don’t remember having a sample taken that way before, and I enjoyed seeing how that particular bit of medical technology works.
How It Was Done, Reading the Results
The open sore has been a problem since — April, I think. It had been getting bigger, and was turning an unpleasant color. That, I’ll admit, was concerning.
This biopsy process involved Novocaine to desensitize the skin. Then the doctor took something that looked like a very skinny ballpoint pen with a stubby metal cylinder sticking out one end. The cylinder was about as big around as the ink holder in low-end ballpoints.
He rolled/rotated the ‘pen’, pushing the business end into the middle of the patch that didn’t look right. That part didn’t hurt a bit, thanks to the Novocaine, I suppose.
Dabbing silver nitrate where he’d taken a tiny divot of skin: that, I felt. Turns out it’s an effective cauterizing agent.
About a week later, I read the biopsy results. The regional healthcare outfit in these parts has an online service that lets me see such things, do some appointment paperwork ahead of time, and — I appreciate being able to access the information.
And I REALLY liked that the first word was “benign”:
“Benign skin with underlying dermal vascular proliferation, extensive chronic inflammation, patchy acute inflammation and red blood cell extravasation….”
(Lab report from my biopsy of June 19, 2025) [I LIKE having access to information like this: and that I could see it before the doctor did]
“Benign” was good to see. So was noticing, over the last couple weeks, that the sore has been (1) getting smaller and (2) turning a less-concerning color.
This week’s trip to the local clinic confirmed the impression I had, that the sore is healing. I’ll have another scar from this, but the sore IS healing.
Wrapping this bit up —
You don’t run into the word “extravasation” every day. I don’t, at any rate. It’s medical-speak for leakage into surrounding tissue. I’ve put links to a more formal definition, and some decent overviews of what biopsies are and how they’re done, at the end of this post.2
Central Texas Flash Floods: Waiting for a Supervisor’s Approval?
Although it’s not good news, an item I read on Friday helped me feel a bit better about some of the folks living in central Texas.
Up here in central Minnesota, we can expect wild weather year-round.
During the summer, when we get word that something like tornadoes are possible, spotters — locals who sign up for the task — deploy around towns, in the general direction that a storm is coming from. If one of them sees/hears something bad at their location, they call in. It doesn’t stop the twisters, but it lets the rest of us know it’s time to head into shelters.
Sounds like folks in central Texas have a similar setup.
Just one problem.
A firefighter noticed and reported a submerged road sign, maybe early enough to give some folks time to run. But somewhere between that firefighter and the folks who died, vital information got stuck in traffic.
I don’t feel up to summarizing, so here are two excerpts from a BBC News piece:
“Texans did not immediately receive flood alerts after request, audio reveals”
Brandon Drenon, BBC News, Washington DC; Mallory Moench, BBC News, London (July 10, 2025)“A Texas firefighter asked if emergency flood alerts could be sent to Kerr County residents about an hour before the first warnings were received, audio reveals.
“In the recording, obtained by US outlets, the firefighter asks at 04:22 on 4 July if a CodeRED alert can be issued. The dispatcher says a supervisor needs to approve the request.
“Some residents received the alert an hour later – for others it took up to six hours, according to reports. Asked about the delays, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said officials were putting together a timeline….”
[emphasis mine]
Now, I can see why folks setting up an emergency response protocol might want someone with a little extra training and experience give the ‘okay’ before declaring an emergency.
But around here, if a spotter reports a twister, we’re told: usually BEFORE it gets to us.
Timing is very important in situations like this.
Again, hats off to the firefighter who reported an underwater sign.
“…In the recording of the firefighter’s dispatch call, the emergency responder can be heard saying: ‘The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39.
“‘Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?’
“‘Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor,’ the dispatcher replied….
“The Texas Newsroom, which first reported on the audio, said some residents received a CodeRED alert around an hour after that.
“The earliest alert ABC News’ affiliate could confirm was 05:34. Kerrville’s mayor did not receive an alert for 90 minutes, he told the Texas Tribune.
“Some messages did not arrive until after 10:00, multiple news outlets reported.
“Asked on Wednesday about possible delays to emergency communications, Sheriff Leitha said he was first notified around the ‘four to five area’ — and that ‘we’re in the process of trying to put a timeline’.
“‘That’s going to take a little bit of time,’ he told reporters at a news conference. ‘That is not my priority at this time.’…
“…The National Weather Service sent several about rain and possible flooding starting on Thursday afternoon, and the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) activated state resources because of flooding concerns….”
(“Texans did not immediately receive flood alerts after request, audio reveals” Brandon Drenon, BBC News, Washington DC; Mallory Moench, BBC News, London (July 10, 2025)) [emphasis mine]
My guess is that, ideally, there shouldn’t be a one-to-six-hour delay while paperwork for a “CodeRED alert” gets processed.
Sheriff Leitha’s “That is not my priority at this time” — makes sense. To me, at least. Putting search and other immediate concerns ahead of sorting out what went so spectacularly wrong sounds like reasonable priorities.
So What?
From the sounds of it, folks in central Texas could, starting Thursday afternoon, have seen Weather Service warnings that flash floods were likely that night.
A definitive ‘head for the hills’ alert came almost comically late.
Something went wrong. Many things, very likely. What those things were, I don’t know.
The political angle — what I called the usual baying of the hounds last week — is still nattering its way through my news feed. I hope it doesn’t keep folks who care about their neighbors from finding out what went wrong, and fixing the problem.
My view is that more than a hundred people died, very likely in part because warnings that might have saved a few lives took too much time to clear bureaucratic hurdles. That’s close to a best-case scenario, I fear.
I’ve been reining myself in, not venting about some of my fears: partly because I see no point in the exercise, partly because it’d take me too close to breaking a very important rule.
Loving Neighbors, Making Sense
I’m a Catholic.
As such, I should love God and my neighbors — and see everybody as my neighbor. No exceptions. (Matthew 5:43–44, 22:36–40; Mark 12:28–31; Luke 6:31, 10:25–37; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1706, 1776, 1789, 1825, 1849-1851, 1955)
Loving my neighbors, all of them, and unleashing how I feel about how some of them may have acted — or, rather, not acted — those aren’t compatible options. Not this week.
On the other hand, suggesting that finding out what went wrong is a good idea does come under the heading of ‘loving my neighbors’. Make that finding out, then taking steps to reduce the odds that it’ll happen again.
Finally, about that biopsy and the state of my health —
Being healthy is okay. Being not-healthy is okay. Trying to get or stay healthy is a good idea, within reason. What each of us does matters.
If that sounds familiar, it should.
I’ve talked about health, disasters, and making sense, before:
- Health
- “What a Weekend!” (June 22, 2025)
- “Called to Holiness, Not Stupidity” (June 7, 2025)
- “Still Dealing With an Infection” (May 16, 2025)
- Disasters
- “Central Texas Flash Floods: Camps Mystic, Heart O’ the Hills” (July 7, 2025)
- “First Helene, Now Milton; Yikes: Another Major Hurricane” (October 12, 2024)
- “Cyclone Tauktae, COVID-19 and the Siloam Lesson” (May 22, 2021)
1 This Red River Valley is the one in central North America:
- Wikipedia
2 A bit about biopsies and leaks:
- Wikipedia
- Biopsy: Types of biopsy procedures used to diagnose cancer (the “Skin biopsy” section describes what I experienced)
Mayo Clinic - extravasation
Dictionary of Cancer Terms, National Cancer Institute (cancer.gov)