Language Barriers During 911 Outage Spark Concern in Santa Barbara County
Patricia Martellotti
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – New concerns in Santa Barbara County after yesterday’s 911 outage left thousands without access to emergency services.
For many Spanish-speaking families, the crisis was compounded by confusion and a lack of multilingual support.
When 911 lines went down across parts of California, panic set in, especially for those who didn’t understand the emergency alert.
In Santa Barbara, executive director Jennifer Rojas of Casa de la Raza says the organization became an unexpected hub for help.
The non-profit received calls every one to two minutes, mostly from Spanish-speaking families unsure of what was happening or where to turn.
Staff at Casa de la Raza stepped in – answering phones, offering support, and redirecting people to the Santa Barbara Police Department for assistance.
Rojas is now urging county and state officials to create more inclusive emergency alert systems, ones that account for Santa Barbara’s diverse population.
She says language shouldn’t be a barrier to safety.
Casa de la Raza is continuing to collect feedback from families impacted by the outage.
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