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By Melissa Jo Hill
  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
  • Natural Resources and the Environment Section
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With ice thaws threatening Lake Ontario shorelines and the statewide threat from the novel coronavirus, Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Assistant Director Keith Tidball is spending this spring on the front lines helping New York state communities overcome challenging situations.

“[We deal with] everything from what to do with pets, to ‘I have mold in my basement because I've been flooded,’ to ‘I have ice dams building on my roof because of a four- or five-foot snow load,’ and on and on,” Tidball said in a recent episode of CCE’s “Extension Out Loud” podcast.

Tidball, also a senior extension associate in the Department of Natural Resources, said CCE is ideally suited to assist local, state and federal agencies in the planning, recovery and rebuilding phases that accompany a disaster.

“We look to our network nationally of other land-grant universities and other extension systems as well as our own resources to compile the most accurate, evidence-based information to respond to (disaster recovery),” Tidball told podcast hosts Katie Baildon and Paul Treadwell.

“We’re always prepared, and we can always be better prepared,” Tidball added. “There aren't very many Cooperative Extension systems that are as switched on as this one (in New York state) when it comes to understanding our augmentation role to our state and federal partners and our obligations to our county associations.”

Full episodes of “Extension Out Loud,” including descriptions and transcripts of each episode, can be found online. Episodes can also be streamed on Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud.

This article also appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.

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