Hispanics may be ill-prepared for accident

This story was published Tue, May 7, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon Bureau

HERMISTON -- Alfredo Aceves worries about Hispanics who live near the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

"I don't think Hispanics are very well prepared for an accident," he said.

He blames that on emergency planners, who he says haven't done enough to reach the area's rapidly rising Hispanic population. "They don't even have anyone bilingual in the program," he said.

The 2000 census tallied Hermiston's Hispanic population at 3,168 people, or 24 percent of the city's total population of 13,154. And Umatilla had a total Hispanic population of 1,622, or 32.6 percent of the city's population of 4,978. Boardman, which had about 2,800 people, was half Hispanic, while nearly a third of Irrigon's total population of about 1,400 were Hispanic.

Aceves said emergency planners can't expect to effectively deliver their message of preparedness when none of them speaks Spanish.

"They come to J.R. Simplot and Lamb Weston to talk about being prepared, but they talk in English. I think that is the problem," he said.

Aceves works for the migrant education program for the Umatilla-Morrow County Education Service District in Hermiston. He also is host of The Latino Show for KOHU radio on Sundays, and serves on the Hermiston School Board. And sometimes he serves as a translator for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program.

Hispanics have shown high interest in learning about the dangers of the depot, Aceves said. "At one meeting in Hermiston, 83 Hispanics showed up. In Umatilla, another 40 showed up."

That should have been a clear message to emergency planners, Aceves said. "Very few people are aware about what's going on at the depot. Or what could happen."

And the emergency broadcast system that's supposed to warn everyone is nearly worthless, Aceves said.

"It's hard to understand what they are saying in English. I can't understand what they are saying in Spanish. It's the system. It's bad," he said.

But Jesse Seigal, who works for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, disagreed that the lack of a bilingual speaker hurts the program.

"As long as (Hispanics) can get the information they need, they're not going to care if someone can speak English or not," Seigal said.

Casey Beard, manager of Morrow County's CSEPP, said Aceves is right that more needs to be done for area Hispanics.

"We've got to put our focus on the Hispanic population. We need to let them know, 'You're important to us. We aren't going to overlook you. We're going to do everything we can to keep you safe.' "

For a start, Aceves said, hire a bilingual speaker. "They should've done it a long time ago."

 

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