Released: June 7, 2011
Rivers large and small are at or near flood stage through much of the central United States, spelling everything from anxiety about what might happen to anguish over what’s been lost.
To help citizens in affected or threatened areas reduce the impact from flooding or recover from flood events, Extension specialists at land grant universities across the United States have compiled information at the eXtension website, http:// www.extension.org/category/floods. The information is provided through the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) http://www.eden.lsu.edu.
“After the flooding in 1993 that took such a huge toll on U.S. citizens, a group of land grant university specialists recognized that each state has information that may prove useful to people in other states as well as their own,” said Mary Lou Peter, communications specialist with K-State Research and Extension. “That group formed EDEN as a means to pool information that would be helpful to the public and to support extension educators with useful information for people in their counties and districts.”
Much of that information is now made available on eXtension, Videos, news releases, fact sheets and more are available on the eXtension website. There is also an “Ask an Expert” feature where a question can be submitted about flooding or flood recovery that will be answered by a university specialist.
eXtension is an Internet-based collaborative environment where land -grant university faculty and staff experts provide objective, research-based knowledge to solve real challenges in real time. The information on the web site is based on unbiased research and undergoes peer review prior to publication. eXtension was launched in early 2008 with 16 resource areas and now has more than 40 with more being added each month. They represent a broad spectrum of interests and activities including:
• agriculture and animals
• community and economics
• energy and the environment
• home and family and
• yard and garden.
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Source: Mary Lou Peter, mlpeter@ksu.edu
