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Posted on: Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Language barrier endangers new immigrants in emergencies

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer

More needs to be done to prepare state residents who don't speak English to respond to a disaster, advocates and members of some ethnic communities say.

Yuk Pang Law, who heads Hawai'i Immigrant Services, which specializes in aiding ethnic communities, said such a push is badly needed.

When a disaster does arise, "I don't think they're well-informed about what to do and I don't know who is supposed to inform them," Law said. "They don't speak English and when they turn on the TV, they don't even know what's going on because they only see pictures."

Manny Sound, former president of Micronesians United and former lieutenant governor of Chuuk, agreed.

"I was thinking about things like relevant information for preparedness," he said. "If the island is going to be hit by a storm, what are the steps a family must take?"

According to the Hawai'i Data Book 2004, 302,125 members of the island's population 5 years old and over, or 26.6 percent, speak a language other than English at home. Less than half of them, 143,505 â€â€