Hawaii government agencies aren鈥檛 translating any of their hurricane-related announcements despite the island state鈥檚 relatively large community of people with limited English proficiency.

Instead, some are relying on radio stations to reach people who don鈥檛 speak English.

John M. Cummings III, spokesman for the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management, said basic disaster prep information has already been translated into a dozen languages. But when it comes to ongoing updates about the changing weather situation, the city relies on , including but not limited to Vietnamese, Chuukese and Samoan.

Few government updates and other announcements are translated into languages other than English, though Hawaii has a fairly large number of residents with limited English skills. 

Honolulu has the who don’t speak English very well 鈥 about聽15 percent聽鈥斅燾ompared with other counties.

Maui County has the next-highest percentage of residents who don’t speak English very well.

Rod Antone, spokesman for Maui County, says the county isn鈥檛 translating its announcements but has been sending its updates to the island鈥檚 Filipino FM radio station, where they are interpreted in both Tagalog and Ilocano.

Maui County also has a relatively large Spanish-speaking population. Spanish is the number one most-requested language in the island鈥檚 courts.

A spokeswoman for Hawaii County Civil Defense said she did not know of any interpretation or translation of emergency announcements. A spokeswoman for Kauai County said no translations are being provided but that individuals can request interpreters.

Richard Rapoza, spokesman for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said the organization has translated brochures into different languages previously, but isn鈥檛 doing it so for emergency alerts.

鈥淔or this, because of the speed it moves at, we don鈥檛 offer translations,鈥 he said.

A spokeswoman for FEMA said the agency hasn鈥檛 sent out any emergency notices and is relying on the state and local governments to get the word out.

Hawaii residents speak more than 200 languages, according to Aphirak Bamrungruan, the director of the state鈥檚 Office of Language Access.

Bamrungruan said he had a meeting with FEMA on Thursday morning regarding how people with limited English proficiency aren鈥檛 getting enough information. But it鈥檚 tough to resolve given limited resources. Bamrungruan is one of only two employees in his office.

鈥淚鈥檓 not sure how we will address the issue at this time,鈥 he said. 鈥淭o be honest we don鈥檛 have the best solution.鈥

Bamrungruan said he told the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency that he鈥檚 available to connect them with interpreter services throughout the disaster.

He also is reaching out to community organizations like We Are Oceania, which connects recent immigrants from Micronesia to services, to ensure they have updated information.

鈥(People with limited English proficiency) should be able to have equal access and meaningful access to what鈥檚 going on,鈥 Bamrungruan said.

鈥淚 know it鈥檚 challenging. During this time it鈥檚 really difficult. It鈥檚 a time that everyone has to come together and look at this issue.鈥

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