Natural disasters like hurricanes disproportionately impact vulnerable, at-risk groups, like the elderly and the poor — a topic I covered in the first part of this Community Voice. Non-English speakers, whether long-term residents or recent immigrants, represent another such group.

About 20 percent of U.S. residents around the country speak languages other than English at home. This figure is higher in states like Florida (23 percent), Texas (31 percent) and California (39 percent).

One prominent natural disaster involving non-English speakers was the 1987 Saragosa, Texas, tornado — ranked F4 or “devastating” on the Fujita scale — that killed 30 people, almost all Spanish-only speakers. About 22 deaths occurred at a graduation ceremony in a church; town residents heard no Spanish-language warnings, as they were primarily consumers of all Mexican TV and radio, which had no linkages to Texas emergency agencies.

After that tragedy, FEMA elevated non-English speaking groups for preparedness engagement.

The latest Hawaii state data report from the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism revealed that in Hawaii, 25 percent of households speak a language other than English at home. Languages include Ilocano, Tagalog, Japanese, Samoan and others.

Only 54 percent within that category are able to speak English “very well” and about 18 percent of Hawaii’s total population reports speaking English “not well” or “not at all.” The question is how to reach these non-English speaking groups in the right linguistic and cultural way?

A 2011 FEMA “Whole Community” report cited the Ohio state government outreach to its Somali-speaking population, approximately 50,000, the second-largest such community group in the United States. Ohio emergency managers, who previously had issued emergency warnings in English and Spanish only, gained insights to this group’s preferred communication methods and customs through their outreach, which included dialogue with Somali community leaders.

Now, bilingual staff regularly update Somali residents about radio weather alerts, outdoor warning sirens and Ohio weather hazards awareness such as tornadoes, thunderstorms and flooding. Ohio’s success with Somali speakers serves as an example for Hawaii and other states that engaging non-English speaking groups in an integrated, sustained manner works.

Best Practices For Kids, Tourists And Pets

Curiously, in disaster preparedness, children have not been part of many exercise scenarios, perhaps because emergency planners assume that parents will ensure their children will be protected at home or in shelters. But like the elderly, children have unique needs.

For example, in many states military rations were stockpiled to feed disaster survivors. However, the meals were developed for soldiers during combat, and so for children, the elderly, or anyone with dietary or health issues, the meals are not suitable, containing high levels of fat and salt, and low levels of fiber.

Recently, emergency planners have been exploring a children-focused program, which takes into consideration unique food and health needs. For example, children become dehydrated faster than adults, so clean water supplies are a particularly high priority for children’s health, especially when suffering from diarrhea.

Children should not be neglected as participants in disaster preparedness. Learning from teachers and schoolmates, children have been early adopters of sustainability, often more passionately than adults through activities like recycling cans and plastic bottles. Similarly, children may absorb disaster preparedness training quickly and be taught to be pro-active in communicating emergency warnings to their parents, some who may not speak or read English well.

Hawaii pet-owners likely would agree that animals are an important factor in critical decisions during disasters, including whether or not to evacuate.

A partnership among emergency management agencies, natural hazards experts (like University of Hawaii tsunami researchers) and the state Department of Education can embed natural hazards information and resilience topics throughout the K-12 curriculum.

For example, “H” can stand for “Hurricanes” for kindergarten students, 6th-grade science projects can focus on tsunamis and high school students can volunteer for neighborhood board preparedness groups. Via science-based public education, Hawaii could become a national showcase of resilience training.

Since Hurricane Katrina’s high human (and animal) death and injury tolls, a Louisiana-based center has been devoted to saving animals during disasters. The Animals in Disaster Advisory Group at Louisiana State University has a mission of saving animal lives, as well as those of the animals’ human owners.

Hawaii pet-owners likely would agree that animals are an important factor in critical decisions during disasters, including whether to evacuate or not. Also, animals left without human care would invariably endure unnecessary suffering.

ADAG leads a coalition of Louisiana agencies in emergency animal preparedness, response, and recovery. This translates to bringing together groups like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, veterinary medicine centers, animal rescue teams and animal care providers to coordinate efforts and develop specialized animal care equipment to use during disasters.

In my Nuuanu neighborhood, there is at least one dog or cat per every three households, and each of those families is undoubtedly concerned about their pet whenever a storm warning appears on television. This is an emerging topic in disaster preparedness, and may be a catalyst for Hawaii organizations to explore animal “best practices” in the future.

Finally, another sizable disaster preparedness population in Hawaii and other resort destinations is tourists. According to state visitor statistics, on any day 200,000 visitors are in Hawaii. Oahu tourists count for half, and almost all are concentrated in Waikiki, with most of the rest in Ko Olina and along the North Shore.

Nearly 100,000 potentially stranded tourists with high numbers of non-English speakers in a 3.5 square mile area requires multi-agency coordination. In response to this potential, there has been much planning concerning Waikiki, including the 2015 Hawaii Catastrophic Hurricane Plan, with a detailed inventory of agencies, organizations, shelters and equipment.

With the dramatic increase of tourism and resorts throughout the Asia-Pacific – from Thailand to Philippines to Indonesia to Australia (a region with a history of natural disasters), Hawaii can lead in tourism and disaster multi-disciplinary studies, attracting global hotel CEOs and APAC government agencies to develop visitor-oriented template plans. Hawaii can become a center of global disaster management and research.

In the first part of this Community Voice, published last week, Tsuchiyama explored the special storm-related risks for the elderly and poor. Read it here.