Attorney General James Calls on National Weather Service to Increase Language Accessibility for Severe Weather Warnings

 

Citing Deadly Aftermath of Hurricane Ida, AG James Pushes for Expansion of Language Accessibility in Emergency Alert Systems

 New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Acting Director of the National Weather Service Mary C. Erickson, calling for expanded language accessibility for severe weather alerts. Currently, warnings from the National Weather Service (NWS), which are issued in advance of a severe weather event, are not accessible in any language except for English and Spanish. In advance of Hurricane Ida, which devastated New York in September 2021, NWS alerts were sent out to New Yorkers in only English and Spanish to warn them of the impending storm. The storm caused 18 deaths in New York, and the majority of those individuals were of Asian descent and did not speak or had limited proficiency in English or Spanish.

“Language should never be a barrier to critical information that could save lives,” said Attorney General James. “The National Weather Service must work with other agencies to ensure that all immigrant communities can be effectively warned of future weather-related crises and given the equal chance to survive. It is our responsibility to keep our people safe, and to do so, we must expand language accessibility in our safety protocols.”

In September 2021, Hurricane Ida ravaged the Northeast and tore across New York City. At least 91 people died across nine states, including at least 18 drowning deaths in New York from flash flooding. The NWS sent out a series of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) to all WEA-enabled phones in New York City, warning of a “catastrophic” flash flood emergency. These alerts were issued only in English and Spanish, which are not the primary languages for many of New York’s immigrant communities.

There are approximately 700 different languages and dialects spoken in New York City.  Nearly all the victims who lost their lives to the destruction from Hurricane Ida in New York City were immigrants from Trinidad, Nepal, and China, with primary languages that were neither English nor Spanish. Given the number of immigrants who speak languages other than English and Spanish, Attorney General James urges the NWS to send alerts in at least the languages most commonly spoken by New York City residents with limited English proficiency: Chinese (both traditional and simplified), Russian, French Creole, Bengali, and Korean, in addition to Spanish.

The Commerce Department has issued guidance on executive orders aimed at ensuring that federally assisted programs are accessible to all people, including those with limited English proficiency. In 2014, following the tragic loss of life from extreme weather events in Spanish-speaking communities due to a lack of Spanish safety alerts, the NWS recommended that it should establish a more effective procedure for non-English speaking alert services to warn of severe weather events. Attorney General James is calling on the NWS and the Department of Commerce to swiftly develop the capacity to provide hazardous weather warnings to all Americans, regardless of the language they speak.

New York City emergency management agency maintains an opt-in alerting system, known as NotifyNYC, and these alerts are available in numerous languages. However, city residents must proactively register their cell phone numbers and/or e-mail addresses in order to receive such alerts. There is no indication that most residents in immigrant communities are signed up to receive any such alerts.