| Description: | The Immigrant Emergency Communications Program was jointly created by Orange County Emergency Management and Orange County Health Department to reduce injury and deaths within the non-English speaking community as a result of disasters. This program was created in response to the December 2002 ice storm that led to many deaths within many Latino communities in North Carolina due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Our program implements services designed to introduce emergency preparedness and response information in the native language of the community such as a call down tree for real time information, emergency preparedness training, printed emergency information in the population’s native language, interpreter training for emergency shelter volunteers, paid radio advertisements with emergency preparedness information, and meetings with organizations that serve these populations to share information on how best to improve our services. The Immigrant Emergency Communications Program has been a strong success as evidenced by the increased number of Latinos that have utilized the emergency shelters during winter storms since the December 2002 storm. |