Hispanics in Florida reported they lacked directions and information in Spanish to assist them in preparing for Hurricane Wilma and to tell them what to do and where to go.
Rocio Ayala, a Naples resident told the Sun-Times she was “seriously concerned” about her safety and desperate for information in Spanish when Wilma was approaching.
She missed reports saying Hurricane Wilma slowed down and was not expected to make landfall until a day later than anticipated.
Ayala and a friend drove to Golden Gate library, where they hoped information would be available in Spanish notifying the public of shelter locations and when they would open to the public.
But the library was closed. Finally, after asking friends, they got the Emergency Management phone number, where they were told, in Spanish, that the shelters would open Sunday morning.
At the shelter, things seemed easier. There were signs on the walls, explaining shelter regulations in Spanish, and Hispanic Red Cross volunteers translated.
At the beginning the hurricane season, Emergency Management and the Red Cross offered, for the first time, seminars in Spanish about hurricanes.
The information Hispanic people have about hurricanes comes from seminars, printed booklets in Spanish, TV and newspapers. EM also set up a translator device on its Web site. The problem is, translation software never interprets a language, it translates word by word. The result doesn’t make much sense.
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