Washington D.C.-UNS : U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) led 45 of their colleagues in writing a bicameral letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Jessica Rosenworcel urging her to examine an expansion of the languages that wireless carriers must support for Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs), in order to help close gaps in critical information delivery for non-English and non-Spanish speaking communities.
WEAs are issued by federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local public alerting authorities to notify the public about severe weather events, AMBER Alerts and other emergencies. In 2016, the FCC published a rule requiring wireless carriers who participate in transmitting WEAs to support Spanish-language alert messages but fell short of mandating other languages. During extreme weather, the ability to receive warnings can save lives. However, for many non-English or non-Spanish speakers, the lack of access to alerts in a language they can understand may lead to missed evacuations, injuries, or even loss of life.
“Language barriers should not be the difference between life and death during an emergency,” said Senator Gillibrand. “Lives are put on the line when you’re not able to communicate crucial information about impending inclement weather events, stay-at-home orders, AMBER alerts, and other emergencies, and I look forward to working with the FCC on this important matter.”
“In times of emergencies, people need to be able to receive alerts in the language that is most accessible to them,” said Congresswoman Meng. “Currently, the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) system does not support alerts in languages other than English or Spanish. That is why I am leading an effort, alongside Senator Gillibrand, to expand the number of languages for WEAs. Queens is the world’s borough with many different languages spoken here. In many homes, English is not the primary language, and having WEAs accessible in more languages would help keep people better protected and informed of severe weather warnings, missing persons alerts, shelter in place orders and other emergency announcements.”
“The Asian American community has always been an integral part of this country, and the 2020 census confirms that we are a community that will only continue to grow. It is imperative for our government to take action now to reduce the barriers of access our community has historically faced,” said Jo-Ann Yoo, Executive Director of the Asian American Federation. “I am grateful to Governor Hochul, who met with the victims of Hurricane Ida who first raised this issue, and to Attorney General James who amplified the language gap problems, and to Senator Gillibrand and Congresswoman Meng who are leading the charge in Washington, D.C. for this critical change. On behalf of our community, we thank all the members of Congress who have signed onto this letter recognizing the need for language accessibility, especially in lifesaving services such as Wireless Emergency Alerts. This is not just a much-needed matter of representation, but vital one that will save the lives of Asian Americans.”
The lawmakers also wrote that as the United States becomes more diverse and cities and regions such as New York City experience growing populations of Asian immigrants, “linguistic barriers faced by this community demonstrate a need for accessible emergency notifications so that non-English and non-Spanish speaking communities can be prepared for extreme weather events.”
In New York City, most all of the 13 victims who lost their lives from Hurricane Ida’s 2021 floodwaters were immigrants from Asia. Census data indicates that between 26% and 78% of households in the communities where these people perished speak languages other than English or Spanish at home. There are an estimated 1.3 million New Yorkers who have limited English proficiency and are not Spanish-language speakers.
