Is King County prepared to respond to disaster in 125 languages?

KUOW's Ross Reynolds speaks with Barnaby Dow, of King County Emergency Management, about how his office reaches communities that don't speak English, in case of an emergency.

We were talking with Barnaby Dow because KUOW listener Paco Diaz asked us about whether Washington state is prepared to respond to an emergency or natural disaster in multiple languages. Diaz is familiar with the chaos a disaster can cause -- he was in Mexico City when a major earthquake struck there in 1985.

Diaz has a YouTube channel, where he discusses how to prepare for an earthquake in Spanish.

Said Dow: "When it comes to an actual emergency, we have translators that are available to us, just like a 911 call center would have. We can access all languages in an emergency and we'll dial them in accordingly."

Dow said there is pressure statewide to expand and enhance King County's ability to reach more communities with limited English proficiency, because of legislation passed a couple years ago by state Sen. Bob Hasegawa.

Dow said they are working on "pre-scripted messaging" -- basic emergency messages that can be sent out based on a given scenario, like an earthquake, biological hazard, radiological hazard, or public health emergency. According to the law, Dow said, they're mandated to use Census data to be able to reach local populations that reach a certain threshold.

"We have to be prepared for 30 different languages and we're working on that right now," Dow said, "but there are 125 or more dialects being spoken in King County right now."