Spanish-only speakers in San Diego can now receive live emergency notifications.
San Diego County on Monday launched Spanish versions of its emergency app and website. Both the app and the website stream information about ongoing emergencies such as fires, floods and earthquakes.
They also include survival guides on how to prepare for and recover from natural disasters, acts of terrorism and more. The app is called SDEmergency, and now includes an option to receive alerts in Spanish. The website is ListoSanDiego.org, the Spanish version of ReadySanDiego.org.
“I want to make sure that our Spanish speaking population gets the real life-saving information that they need during an emergency situation," said County Supervisor Greg Cox at a news conference.
About 350,000 county residents are monolingual Spanish speakers, according to county officials.
The director of the county's Office of Emergency Services, Holly Crawford, said she hopes all residents who speak mostly Spanish will download the app or make use of the website.
"We are hoping to reach all of them," she said.
Crawford noted that San Diego is facing a challenging fire season because of the ongoing drought and Santa Ana winds. She said flooding is also a possibility because of the coming El Niño.
"So there's definitely no shortage of reasons for people to take advantage (of the app and website)," she said.
Chula Vista resident Martha Cano, 57, speaks mostly Spanish and said she plans to use the new version of the app.
“Of course I’m going to use it, because it’s a benefit for everyone," she said. "People who are older than me, who don’t know how to use it, I can help them. I can tell them when there’s a fire.”
She said she felt helpless watching news of the Harris Fire on TV in 2007. She could tell it was getting close to her house. But she didn’t understand how close.
"There were some words I didn't understand (in the newscast). So I had to ask my son to translate," she said.
About 164,000 people downloaded the former English-only version of the app, county officials said.
For San Diego residents who don't speak either Spanish or English, the county relies on what officials call a Partner Relay Network, made up of 300 community organizations, churches and other groups that translate emergency information from the county into eight different languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Vietnamese. The groups then distribute that information to their respective members.
