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The Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (OEMHS) has launched a new translation service for emergency alerts sent through the County’s Alert Montgomery system.
In an effort to make the content of alerts accessible to a broader audience, particularly those with limited English proficiency (LEP), OEMHS has created a web-based alert translation service that will allow users to simply click on a link within the emergency notification, whether received via text or email, and visit a County page that is able to translate the alert content into 11 different languages. Those languages include the County’s target languages, which are used most frequently by County residents who speak a language other than English at home. Those target languages are:
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- Amharic
- Chinese
- French
- Korean
- Spanish
- Vietnamese
More than 266,000 people are currently subscribed to Alert Montgomery to receive urgent notifications, making it the largest emergency alert system in the state of Maryland. Alerts posted by OEMHS include extreme weather watches and warnings, missing persons alerts, shelter in place orders, and other situations that may pose an immediate threat to lives and/or property.
“Montgomery County is home to people who speak many different languages, and during an emergency everyone needs to be able to quickly understand what is happening and what they should do to stay safe,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. “Language should never prevent someone from receiving potentially lifesaving information. I appreciate our Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, our County translation team, and the community partners who will help us improve this service and make sure residents know it is available.”
Instructions on how to use the tool are available on the Alert Translations webpage. The translations tool used on the website can learn and improve the quality of translations over time, with assistance from County translators, who will focus on fine-tuning the translating capabilities of the tool in the target languages.
“The Alert Montgomery translations service will give residents with limited English proficiency access to the content of timely emergency notifications,” said OEMHS Director Luke Hodgson. “Alerts like thunderstorm and winter storm watches will help ensure our entire community can better prepare themselves and their property for severe weather events, while urgent, life-threatening warnings about threats like flash floods or tornadoes can save lives.”
OEMHS will begin advertising the program in September during National Preparedness Month via social media campaigns, outreach events, and targeted presentations in LEP communities. Additional outreach efforts will continue throughout the year in partnership with County agencies, faith-based institutions, and nonprofit service providers with existing relationships of trust in LEP communities across the County. As technology improves and expands, OEMHS will continue evaluating options to automate and improve the translation capabilities for emergency notifications.
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When residents subscribe to Alert Montgomery, they can select a variety of different types of alerts they wish to receive, including weather alerts, government and school status, infrastructure issues like water and power outages, and severe traffic issues, including accidents and road closures. They may also select specific neighborhoods, such as around a home, workplace, or school, and the preferred device they would like to use for notifications such as a personal and/or work cell, email, voice notification, etc. It is important to note that at this point, the alert translations service applies only to alert notifications generated by OEMHS, which include emergency notifications about weather, shelter in place, etc. Traffic notifications are not currently included in the translations service.
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Read the original article at mcgov
