The governor has signed into law a bill by a state senator from Santa Barbara intended to help ensure that disaster planning efforts for the public include things like language issues. SB 160 requires counties to provide interpreters and translators for emergency communications, and to use culturally appropriate resources when developing emergency and disaster plans.
Democratic State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara says with California being such a diverse state, you can’t use a one size fits all approach to crisis planning.
She says as an example, a lack of pre-planning meant some emergency messages sent out in Spanish during the 2017 Thomas Fire were inaccurate, because they weren’t translated properly.
Jackson says it’s important to insure counties are prepared with the means to reach out to all residents with key information during a crisis.
