user: IN: Op-Ed Contributor - Wading Through Nashvilles Flood - NYTimes.com
THE first big flood I remember was in 1974, when my family was living in Ashland City, a half-hour down the Cumberland River from Nashville. My mother was the only one home; my sister and I were in school and my stepfather was at work.

We lived in a hollow down a long road, and by early afternoon it had begun to fill with water. By the time my mother, who doesn’t know how to swim, realized how high the water was, it was much too deep to make it out in the car. So she loaded a plastic sailboat with luggage, dragged it down the road in the rain, and then walked into water up to her chest until she reached the considerably higher (and aptly named) River Road, where she and her bags were picked up.

When the rain that has caused Nashville’s worst flooding in 75 years stopped on Sunday night, I got to wondering: Why do people wait and watch the water rise? Why do they keep their luggage in the boat and themselves in water the color of milky coffee that is no doubt full of snakes?

There are things about human nature we’ll never understand, but part of it can be explained by the fact that a flood is, in the beginning, only rain, neither as sudden as an earthquake nor as imperative as fire. Rain happens all the time.

I live in Nashville now; I have for a long time. I started watching the rain on Saturday morning. It was coming down so hard it looked white. My husband and I stood at the front door with our very old dog and decided she’d have to wait until things eased up.

But they didn’t ease up. We canceled our plans for the day. Finally I put on my flip-flops, shorts and raincoat and took the dog out. I went down the street to walk my mother’s dog, then the dog of a friend who lives on a hill around the corner. The water was now up to my ankles, but it was mesmerizing, all that thunder and lightning. I went to see how high the nearby creek was. It was raging like an angry little river.

All night long the tornado sirens wailed, which in the South is a sound you get used to, like cicadas. The next morning when I again went to walk my mother’s dog, the water was up to my knees at points and I could barely see through the rain. My husband went off to walk our friend’s dog, but he couldn’t make it there on foot.

He picked me up in the car and we drove for 15 minutes, looping over higher streets to make it to her house, just a block away. Yesterday’s angry creek was now a torrent, leaping over the road and through the houses beside it. It would take just the slightest error in judgment to be swept away  though maybe fording floodwater to carry small dogs to higher ground to relieve themselves could also be called an error in judgment.

Three years ago we bought a small piece of land along the Cumberland, just off River Road on the way to Ashland City, not far from where I had lived as a child. We keep meaning to build a little house there, a single room with a wide porch where we might spend quiet weekends. We go out there some evenings to have a picnic or paddle around in a canoe. We like to visit with our neighbors.

Monday morning my husband called Monty, who lives to the left of our lot. He was on the second floor of his house. He said everything was lost  his cars had washed away and all the houses on the street were ruined. Then the phone went dead. I called him back and told him to come stay with us. “I’m going to my sister’s,” he said. Then he told me he had to go. “The helicopter’s here.”

That afternoon, on the street where I live, we stood in the sunshine and reported our damages.

While sump pumps turned driveways into rivers, one woman said the water in her basement was up to her hip. Another had water to her shoulder. I offered up the leak in my chimney that will require ripping out my living room ceiling, but that’s small potatoes. A block away a family’s furniture was piled on the lawn.

The rain is over; what we’re left with is the life that follows weather. We’re waiting to hear if the water treatment plant is going to close, and when the public schools are going to reopen.

There is a charming expression in the South  when someone says he’ll see you soon, you respond, “God willing and the creeks don’t rise.” I finally get it.

Ann Patchett is the author, most recently, of Run.
What is a short summary of the above article?

OUT: Why are floods so different from other natural disasters?


IN: Banks end holiday money rip-off
The Office of Fair Trading today said the "Big Five" had agreed to waive debit card charges on travel money bought in the UK.

And it's part of a package of measures the regulator claims will trigger "far more competition" at bureaux de change in the UK.

Responding to a super-complaint from Consumer Focus, the OFT said the banks will now give far clearer information about the charges when using cards overseas at ATMs.

And foreign exchange operators have vowed to "review" their marketing to be far clearer about so-called "O% commission deals".

Brits spend £32BILLION on "travel money" every year  £27billion at ATMs overseas.

Consumer Focus chief Mike O'Connor said: "Consumers should be able to buy foreign currency without being misled, confused or short-changed.

"The OFT has agreed with Consumer Focus that people are losing out due to the action of banks and others buying and selling holiday money."
What is a short summary of the above article?

OUT: BRITAIN’S five biggest banks have vowed to end debit card charges for travel money


IN: Karl Rove: Why the next week is critical for both Hillary and Trump
It was a record-breaker. The Nielsen ratings say 84 million Americans watched Monday’s presidential debate, and most stayed glued to their sets. There was no significant drop-off in viewership as the evening progressed.

Perhaps these viewers hoped to be impressed by what they heard. What they got, however, was a political car crash, with tires screeching, bumpers crumpling and glass breaking.

Donald Trump presented himself as the candidate who can bring change to America. He derided the current economy and the state of the nation, decried precarious world security and depicted Hillary Clinton as a 30-year Washington politician. But these moments were too few. For much of the evening he was on his heels.

Mrs. Clinton deftly and relentlessly attacked him as unqualified and unfit for office. She criticized his business practices and refusal to release his tax returns. She pointed to his multiple bankruptcies and failure to pay contractors. She dredged up old quotes about global warming, recounted a 1973 discrimination lawsuit against his company, and recalled his misogynistic comments—even pointing out one of his targets, a former Miss Universe, in the audience.

To continue reading Karl Rove's column in the Wall Street Journal, click here.

See the Fox News 2016 battleground prediction map and make your own election projections. See Predictions Map →

Karl Rove joined Fox News Channel as a political contributor in February 2008. He also currently serves as a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Rove helped organize the political-action committee American Crossroads. His latest book is "The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters" (Simon & Schuster, 2015). Follow him on Twitter @KarlRove.
What is a short summary of the above article?

OUT:

assistant: It was a record-breaker. The Nielsen ratings say 84 million Americans watched Monday’s presidential debate, and most stayed glued to their sets.