Lariza Garzón, director for North Carolina and mid-south operations at the Hispanic Federation. (Photoby Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)
A group of Latino advocates and researchers in North Carolina have launched a “geospatial database” mapping camps, emergency services and shelters across eastern counties.
The tool is designed to aid farm workers and other Latino workers across the region who may not otherwise know about or have access to resources during hurricanes and severe weather during storm season.
Advocates say some of those workers, who may not speak English or fluent Spanish, remain at higher risk during flooding and storms.
“There is limited access to emergency information in Spanish or the language that they speak,” said Lariza Garzón, the North Carolina director for the Hispanic Federation. “Barriers to adequate housing or health care, or fears tied to immigration status. These communities are too often left out of their response, and left behind in their recovery.”
The database was spurred by research from UNC’s Carolina Population Center, which examined local governments’ plans for disaster preparation and recovery. Many of those plans lacked best practices, particularly when it came to aiding Latino and migrant workers, said Nathan Dollar, director of the center’s Carolina Demography program.
Out of 41 counties surveyed, 14 of them mentioned having Spanish materials in their formal recommended practices, according to Dollar and his colleagues’ research. Nine mentioned translators, and seven mentioned interpreters.
Nathan Dollar, director of Carolina Demography at UNC’s Carolina Population Center. (Photo by Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)Those written guidelines don’t always reflect the full extent of local operations and plans, Dollar said. But they do signal that gaps remain in actively seeking out Latino and migrant populations in their areas. Some live in ultra-rural regions, at addresses not listed in the state’s central emergency address list.
“We are working with the Department of Labor and others to try to make sure that every registered labor camp is registered with the 911 master address list,” Dollar said.
By the end of the year, the new collective — called Unidos por la Tierra y la Comunidad (United for Land and Community) — hopes to have all 100 counties mapped out.
The database will not be publicly available, but will be provided upon special request to local emergency officials and workers at non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, who have a “verified professional need” to use it, Dollar said.
Still, advocates know that some barriers will be harder to remove while completing the project. Ongoing immigration enforcement has created more distrust of government, Garzón acknowledged, meaning that third-party community leaders would be more important than ever.
“We are hoping that people realize that it would be a big mistake to leave entire communities out of disaster response,” Garzón said. “Especially when it’s our community often who are working towards recovery, rebuilding the homes, fixing electrical issues.”
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