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Washington, D.C. – As the nation marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Asian American Justice Center of Washington, D.C. announces the forthcoming release of Hurricane Katrina: Models for Effective Emergency Response in Asian American Communities, a case study examining the government's response to the needs of Limited English Proficient (LEP) Asian American residents in the wake of one of the nation's most devastating natural disasters.

The case study is part of a larger report to be released next summer by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute and Asian Pacific American Legal Center, an affiliate of AAJC. Titled Disaster Preparedness in Urban Communities: Lessons Learned from the Recent Catastrophes Relevant to Asian and Latino Communities in Southern California, the larger report is a study of select Asian and Latino immigrant communities in Southern California aimed at improving disaster awareness among immigrant community members and helping emergency response personnel better serve immigrant and limited English speaking populations. The project is generously funded by the Ford Foundation. The case study will be released in October of this year, and the entire report is slated for release in June 2008.

The Gulf Coast is still staggering and struggling with the impact of one of the worst natural disasters in its history. Hurricane-affected states and counties are still grappling with issues of poverty, lack of housing and unemployment. One issue that has received scant attention was the disaster’s effect on LEP and immigrant populations in the Gulf Coast area. Louisiana was home to more than 118,000 Latinos, 40,000 Vietnamese, and a sizable Asian Indian population prior to Katrina. These groups were particularly vulnerable and faced unique problems in Katrina’s aftermath. For example, non-English speaking or LEP persons were unable to access critical services since many of the immediate relief services offered were available only in English.

Several recommendations from the Hurricane Katrina Case Study include the following:

• Emergency preparedness should involve building community and intra-governmental and intra-faith networks, which are the most effective mechanisms to leverage diverse resources. In all disaster-affected areas in the South, most communities leveraged existing or new coalitions in order to distribute supplies, disseminate information, and form advocacy networks for individuals affected by disaster. For LEP evacuees, this was valuable as language resources could be more effectively utilized.

• More individuals representing LEP populations must join Emergency Disaster Corps programs. By far, the majority of emergency personnel and volunteers providing services in the South were Caucasian. Communities should encourage more bilingual volunteers to be trained in disaster and crisis-management during catastrophic emergencies.

• Sources of immediate and intermediate financial assistance (SBA and FEMA) must completely restructure their systems so that they are culturally and linguistically appropriate. The mounting problems of evacuees one year after Katrina were primarily due to the disorganized state of emergency aid perpetuated by SBA and FEMA. FEMA notices were often vague and obscure, to English-speakers and to non-English speakers. Government agencies have a strong responsibility to plan for LEP populations when implementing immediate financial assistance systems.

“In this era of increased risk and disaster, including fires, tornados, and even a possible pandemic flu, the nation’s government would be remiss not to re-examine its strategy regarding planning for and educating LEP communities,” said Tuyet Duong, staff attorney at the Asian American Justice Center.