ABSTRACT
During emergencies, most people turn to their radio or TV stations or, nowadays, possibly Internet and/or social media sources to seek information about the situation and hopefully assure their safety. Non-English speaking Mexican Americans and other Latinas/os are among those most at risk every time a calamity strikes, be it caused by nature or by humans. Observations and data gathered informally prior to the launch of the project suggested that there were many areas of deficiencies in the availability and delivery of Spanish-language news and information during emergencies. The findings, and most importantly the implementation of any positive changes to enhance emergency communication flows, are certain to benefit the ethnic-minority populations, and by extension the other residents of those cities and possibly other localities as well. There are fewer Spanish-language television stations in Central Texas than radio stations, and this landscape has its own characteristics for emergency news and information.
