New York officials are calling for a wider array of language options in severe weather alerts after Hurricane Ida’s floods disproportionately claimed Asian lives and devastated lower-income immigrant neighborhoods in September.
State Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter Tuesday calling on the National Weather Service and the U.S. commerce secretary to expand emergency alert language beyond just English and Spanish. In the letter, she cited the alerts that were sent out ahead of Ida’s “catastrophic” rain, urging residents to find higher ground in preparation for the life-threatening flooding.
But she said the messages didn’t reach those who needed them the most.
“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,” her office said in a news release.
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