Where do you get your Weather warnings?
Would you settle for your warnings/alerts etc in a second language?
If you wanna skip the blog and go directly to video-See Example HERE
When I was 11 years old I was playing basketball in Ghents addition (Marks house) in Marion Illinois with a guy named Raven Hudson. It was around 3pm. That was was the first time I'd HEARD the Tornado sirens.
The sky was black, and I wasn't trippin till the ol man came flying up in our 1978 delta 88. Had I known better I wouldve been trippin long before tweet rolled up. Get your G*@ D@!* A*s in the car. Done.
With him, Mom and one sister.
The first thing I noticed was WDDD going live to Tom Rideikus and that eerie pulsating radio storm lead in blaring just barely louder than my dads unorganized stream of curses. Angie was crying, and my mom was rattling off the game plan, which was, get in, strap in, call in any favors i may have been saving up with God cause we were headed to "snob hill" to find the middle sister, and this was as Tom was saying -Take cover.We booked it down past the park, turned/slid right onto boyton headed out of Ghents. Jumped the tracks, blew a red light at the hucks where boyton switches up to hendrickson street. Stop sign at vicksburg....blew it.
Next thing i know, My dad slows to a stop at Hedrickson and russell. As we looked over longfellow school we could see the big bastard. (It wasnt close to us but it looked like it was at the time)Tearing up things that no one had told me before this day could be torn up in such a way. The ol man was hypnotized and we just sat there as W Three D was now screaming take cover and then they left the air. That radio had been the life line for us, our guide as to what was up.
Of course within a few minutes the radio had Tom and Dutch talking again and we resumed getting our information.
Later we found that 10 people had died. We continued to follow via radio tv etc.
.
Now, where do you get your weather info? Not in 1982, right now.
Radio TV Town sirens? everywhere? Seemingly.
Would you settle for your emergency alert in a second language? Not in AMERICA, right?
What if you didnt have access to that warning? Any Warning.
Not because you are a freak or are isolated but because you have a different language modality.
What if you're driving to walmart and the weather looks bad? You turn on your radio, find your trusted weather station?
(For me if im in Marion, it is still w3Dfm 107.3-Big lake Kuh-un-tree)
If you have kids, skys look bad, do you flip it over to the weather channel?
I know I have personally read/interpreted alerts that state, "stay tuned to your local weather radio/tv for updates." 30 Million americans AMERICANS american, cant. Not wont, cant. Solution, accessibility. Alerts. Websites. Information.
In the land of the free and the home of the brave where diversity is celebrated, this is the one reason some are left out of the emergency preparedness alerts? AMERICANS?
Last night I spent the whole of my shift at work recording and sending out video Tornado warnings from NWS, when i got up today and saw the devastation, I was sickened. I know for sure our alerts went to some real people but right now there are certain states that arent covered. ITS UNREAL.
Waking up to complete Tornado aftermath/devastation all over TV just re-re-re-reinforces that getting what we do needs to be implemented into the mainstream emergency mgt practices. It is imperative. The scope of devastation from last nights storms is horrific.
There is no reason, with todays technology, that should keep people from getting hazardous weather alerts in their language & modality.
As for the people that have undoubtedly muttered closed captioned either to themselves or aloud in regards to emergency alerts-
Captioning is English, English is an AUDITORY Language, thus in an Emergency, The Deaf community are and have been getting their emergency information in a second language.
Also for the blind and deaf/blind alerts are available too. Imagine that. Dont have to, its here.
ASL is a visual gestural language. It is is not rooted in English.
See Example HERE