Workforce Language Services

Ensuring safety in any environment requires clear, effective communication with all community members. This article describes what happened when a county in Virginia left monolingual Spanish-speaking community members uninformed of a water main break.

JAMES CITY - Last September, a water main broke in James City County, possibly contaminating the water supply of 17,000 residents. For three days, locals were ordered to boil their tap water, or not use it at all.That same week, Gloria Morales said she was alarmed to hear of Hispanic families using the water to cook, or mixing it with their babies’ formula.

They weren’t intentionally violating the boil order, she said.

They just didn’t know.

“All the information available was only in English,” she said.

Since then, Morales, coordinator of the nonprofit Network for Latino People, has been working with local authorities on an emergency preparedness plan for the Hispanic community in the Williamsburg area. The Hispanic population in Williamsburg, James City County and York County is estimated at about 3 percent of the total population, according to U.S. Census data.

While local emergency responders have been receptive to the plan, Morales said many didn’t know how to reach non-English speakers, or realize that language could be an issue in a disaster situation.