Report 2019-103 Recommendation 13 Responses

Report 2019-103: California Is Not Adequately Prepared to Protect Its Most Vulnerable Residents From Natural Disasters (Release Date: December 2019)

Recommendation #13 To: Emergency Services, Office of

To ensure that it adequately equips local jurisdictions to send alert and warning messages in languages that their residents will easily understand, Cal OES should do the following: provide clear direction to individuals who speak English so that they know which of the translated messages they should use in what specific circumstances; revise the messages it has provided so that local jurisdictions can more easily adapt them for use in a variety of disaster situations; expand its style guide to include terminology that emergency managers are likely to need to effectively modify their local messages and also to include translations for the other commonly spoken languages in the State.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2023

Cal OES Alert and Warning (A&W) Program has created message templates that can be used by local A&W authorities as situation dictates. The templates include clear directions and instructions to individuals who speak English, so that they know which of the translated messages they should use in a specific circumstance. The message templates have been expanded to include the top five (5) most prevalent threats (Fire, Flood, Earthquake, Hazardous Materials Spills, and Debris Flows) in California. All message templates will be translated to the top 18 most commonly spoken languages based on the 2020 California Census: Arabic, Armenia, Farsi, Spanish, Mandarin (Simplified Chinese), Cantonese (Traditional Chinese), Hindi, Hmong, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese.

In addition, A&W has expanded its Style Guide and Glossary to include hazard specific terminology for top prevalent hazards in California. The Style Guide and Glossary will also be translated to the top 18 most commonly spoken languages in California.

Cal OES anticipates the completion date of the translation templates and the Style Guide to be at or near the end of October of 2023. Cal OES will provide copies of the translation templates and the Style Guide to CSA, once they are completed.

A&W also updated its Guidelines, which are currently under review by the Cal OES Executive Office. Once approved by the Executive Office, the Guidelines will be shared with the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) Technical and Advisory Committee and will provide final approval prior to publishing on the CalAlerts.org website. These guidelines will enable the development of robust, accessible, and effective alert and warning programs throughout California by providing a comprehensive articulation of best practices, protocols, and procedures used by jurisdictions to serve all Californians.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

We will evaluate the updated alert and warning templates, style guide, and instructions when Cal OES completes them and submits them for our review.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022

Cal OES continues to meet the requirement and improve on adequately equipping local jurisdictions to send alert and warning messages in languages that their residents will easily understand.

Cal OES Alert and Warning (A&W) Program has established a resource library of foreign language message templates by local Alert & Warning authorities with both FEMA-administered Alert and Warning systems, as well as mass notification systems and social media platforms, which provide greater capability for multilingual messaging. These templates can be used by local A&W authorities as situation dictates based on community demographics. The templates include clear direction to individuals who speak English, so that they know which of the translated messages they should use in what specific circumstance; furthermore, A&W is working on updating the message template format to be easily adaptable. The message templates will include the English sample message along with its translations. Message templates will also be expanded to include the top 5 most prevalent threats (Fire, Flood, Earthquake, Hazardous Materials Spills and Debris Flows) in California. All message templates will be translated to the top 10 most commonly spoken languages based on the 2020 California Census.

In addition, A&W will also expand its Style Guide and Glossary to include hazard specific terminology for top prevalent hazards in California that emergency managers are likely to need to effectively modify their local messages. The Style Guide and Glossary will be translated to the top 10 most commonly spoken languages based on the 2020 California Census.

Lastly, A&W is working on finalizing its State of California Alert and Warning Guidelines, which will enable the development of robust, accessible, and effective alert and warning programs throughout California by providing a comprehensive articulation of best practices, protocols, and procedures used by jurisdictions to serve all Californians.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2021

Cal OES Alert and Warning (A&W) program has established a library of foreign language message templates with the local Alert & Warning authorities. These templates can be used by local A&W authorities as situation dictates based on community demographics. All local A&W authorities have been introduced to the library and many are already using it. Additional templates are to be created and added to the library as deemed necessary based on individual A&W needs. Cal OES A&W program continues to progressively work with local A&W authorities to further enhance this capability and encourage local A&W participations statewide.

Cal OES respectfully requests to close Finding #13 as the efforts underway will be focused on continuous improvement based on new, future Alert and Warning guidelines, technologies and implemented best practices.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

As we note in the report, the translated messages that Cal OES created will not be helpful to emergency managers who do not already speak these languages because Cal OES has not provided a crosswalk of the English and translated versions of the templates. As a result, the guidance provides no indication of what the messages state for someone who does not speak, for instance, Chinese or Armenian, which greatly increases the risk that local jurisdictions will not use the templates or will use the wrong message template in an emergency situation.

We will not consider this recommendation to be fully implemented until Cal OES provides alert and warning message assistance that fully addresses the deficiencies we identified in our audit.

1-Year Agency Response

Cal OES and its partner agencies continuously performed extensive in-language public education and outreach efforts to emphasis on ensuring websites, social media, and public services announcements are being conveyed in a linguistically appropriate format. The COVID19.ca.gov website is currently available in 8 languages and public services announcements have been produced in 13 languages to ensure that all those in our state can receive the "Stay home, Save lives" messaging in format that meets their needs. Once the pandemic subsides, the Cal OES Response Operations Directorate will re-start its engagement with the Mutual Aid Regional Advisory Committees to determine with local officials the most operationally sound approach to enhancing the effectiveness of translated message templates. Cal OES's corrective action is ongoing and will require continual updates.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

6-Month Agency Response

On March 4, 2020, the State of California declared a State of Emergency as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, the Cal OES Response Operations Directorate fully mobilized to support COVID-19 disaster response efforts and temporarily postponed other steady state planning efforts, including engagement with the Mutual Aid Regional Advisory Committees, to ensure all available personnel were focused on supporting COVID-19. As part of the state's response to COVID-19, Cal OES and its partner agencies have performed extensive in-language public education and outreach efforts which an emphasis on ensuring websites, social media and public services announcements are being conveyed in a linguistically appropriate format. The COVID19.ca.gov website is currently available 8 languages and public services announcements have been produced in 13 languages to ensure that all those in our state can receive the "Stay home, Save lives" messaging in format that meets their needs. Once the pandemic subsides, the Cal OES Response Operations Directorate will re-start its engagement with the Mutual Aid Regional Advisory Committees to determine with local officials the most operationally sound approach to enhancing the effectiveness of translated message templates. Cal OES's corrective action is ongoing and will require continual updates.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

Cal OES Response Operations Directorate is planning to use its Spring 2020 Mutual Aid Regional Advisory Committee meetings (beginning March 11, 2020) to determine with local officials the most operationally sound approach to enhancing the effectiveness of translated message templates. Cal OES's corrective action is ongoing and will require continual updates.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2019-103

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.