Posted on 06/06/2007 2:50:48 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
With the 2007 hurricane season formally under way this month, the federal government says it has taken new steps to protect and serve growing Hispanic communities in its path more effectively. Latino organizations are making some special efforts to counter as many as 21 named big winds ranging from Chantal, Dean and Erin to Humberto, Lorenzo and Pablo.
Tropical storm Barry set things in motion in the Gulf of Mexico June 1 but never reached hurricane force. Prior to Barry came Andrea, also popular in Spanish, as the first named storm, but she was barely noticed.
The season is expected to last until November, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
It forecasts there will be between 13 to 17 named storms, with the possibility of seven to 10 of them becoming hurricanes. Between three and five of these could reach a hurricane category of 3 or higher. Hurricane Katrina, which touched land Aug. 29, 2005, blowing 125 miles per hour and eventually reached a category 5.
Federal preparedness to work with the Hispanic community includes an online resource designed to inform and guide residents to deal with emergency situations, including a listing in Spanish as well as in English of such basics as water, food, air and clothing needed during the first 72 hours after disaster strikes.
More detailed information can be found on "La campana listo," by visiting www.listo.gov.
Additionally, Latino organizations inform Hispanic Link News Service that they're prepared to provide emergency assistance, as many did following the aftermath of Katrina in 2005.
"We are coming up with ways to inform communities of the available resources to prepare for possible forthcoming natural disasters," says Jennifer Ng'andu, National Council of La Raza health policy analyst.
Following Katrina's devastation, national and local Hispanic groups provided much-needed assistance, often filling in gaps left by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross.
Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, offers as an example when the organization sent emergency assistance to Florida's De Soto and Manatee counties located just south of Tampa.
"We stepped into these two small populated low-living standard farming communities, predominantly Hispanic," Wilkes says. "FEMA was slow to get there because they focused on assisting higher populated cities such as Tampa."
Some of the states threatened by hurricanes hitting the North Atlantic and Gulf Coast regions of the country have traditionally had large Hispanic populations, mainly regions in Texas and Florida.
Since Katrina, Louisiana has experienced a boom in its Hispanic immigrant population, according to a study by Tulane University and the University of California, Berkeley.
More than 14,000 Hispanics migrated to New Orleans following Katrina. Hispanic workers comprised half of the reconstruction force in the city, nearly half of whom were purported to be undocumented.
While immediate emergency assistance from the federal government should be available to everyone affected by a storm, regardless of immigration status, longer term help would be out of reach for undocumented immigrants.
For instance, they would not be eligible for loans from the Small Business Administration. The SBA offers loans of up to $200,000 for reconstruction because of property damage and loans as high as $1.5 million for small businesses.
Am I the only one who finds this idiotic? Federal Government Takes Steps to Protect Hispanics from Hurricanes?
Nice to know English is optional in the Los Estados Unidos de América.
Truely a Bizzaro world we live in.
bump
This is a pile of crap.
No.
It’s hard to keep up with political correctness. The feminists screamed because it was sexist to name all the hurricanes after women, so they changed that.
Now evidently it’s racist NOT to name hurricanes after hispanics. How about naming the next one for Fidel or Hugo?
La atención por favor, consigue por favor en los autobúses de la escuela levemente dañados, usados,y mojados .
I for one, am very glad that the hispanics are prepared for hurricane season, but why aren’t the Eskimo’s getting any press vis a vis their preparation for Winter 2008? It’s equally pertinent, and, to me, much more interesting. You know they live in igloos. (sarc)
Women, minorities STILL hardest hit.
Hurrican Soros, Hurricane Marx, Hurrican LaRouche...
Si! Gracias!
Moo!
(there is not a translation for cow sounds...)
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