Thread: Language Barrier Can Become an Issue During an Emergency

Language barrier can become an issue during an emergency

From Staff Reports
Posted: 06/30/2010 03:43:10 PM PDT

Latinos, Asians and other immigrants who speak limited English could be in greater risk in a disaster because many cities lack bilingual emergency personnel and communications systems, a new report released Wednesday said.

"Are We Ready for a Disaster," prepared by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Tomas Rivera Center, found that while most Southern California cities provide printed disaster materials in Spanish, few provide those documents in Asian languages.

In addition, many cities don't have the resources to provide Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) training courses in disaster preparedness for residents in languages other than English.

The report recommended that cities seek partnerships with local businesses to find funding to improve disaster preparedness for all residents. Municipalities should also try to secure government grants to provide bilingual courses for first-responders and CERT training in other languages.

While most cities employ bilingual first-responders, not enough of those personnel speak Asian languages in cities with large Asian populations, while cities with large Spanish-speaking residents lack sufficient first-responder who speak that language, the report said.

Most cities use local radio or TV stations to broadcast emergency messages to resident, but a majority broadcast them only in English, the report found, with city official telling researchers they can't afford to broadcast the messages in other languages.

Language barriers could result in immigrant communities not receiving timely information about an unfolding emergency or after a disaster, putting them at greater risk than English-speaking residents, the report noted.

It said 66 percent of the county's Asian American population was born outside the Unities States and likely to have limited English skills.

The county's Asian community grew 35 percent between 1990 and 2000, while the number of Latinos grew during the same period by nearly 900,000, the report said.

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_15412709?source=rss

No surprises here!

If he/she has not already done so, please act positively by sending an email to your Congressional representative without charge through ProEnglish requesting that they co-sponsor the ENGLISH LANGUAGE UNITY ACT, H.R. 997, sponsored by Rep. Steve King (IA). H.R. 997 would make English the official language of the United States and would repeal Pres. Clinton's Executive Order 13166, which requires that English-speaking U.S. residents finance translators for non-English speaking residents.

http://capwiz.com/proenglish/issues/ale ... d=14928441

The companion bill in the Senate is S. 991 sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe, OK.


Other national organizations promoting making English the official language of the United States:

English First
http://englishfirst.org/

U.S. English
http://www.us-english.org/