Weather Service – 450,000 in Louisiana No Longer Getting Warnings

There was a time in Louisiana when the stewards of the land, the marsh, and the coast didn't need National Weather Service radars, satellites, forecast models, and hygrometers. These "old-school" Louisiana residents used their own powers of observation and read the signs that Mother Nature provided to predict any abrupt changes in the weather conditions.

Fast forward just a few decades and people from New Orleans to Lake Charles and Venice to Shreveport almost exclusively depend on an App or a TV weather personality to tell them whether or not it's going to rain and if a jacket would be required to be comfortable.

And while weather forecasting has come a long way, the greatest strides in weather prediction, at least in my opinion, have come in the realm of urgent storm warnings. The United States Government has developed an Emergency Alert System that is designed to quickly and efficiently disseminate and share important information with the population of the entire nation or just a given region depending on the scope of the emergency.

You're probably most familiar with these "alerts" during times of severe weather. It's during those times that the EAS System and the quick transfer of information from the National Weather Service to the people can literally save lives.

However, recent changes at NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seem to suggest that approximately 10% of Louisiana's population will not understand any important information that is being transmitted via EAS or the National Weather Service.

Those at risk of missing out on important weather bulletins are the 450,000 plus residents of Louisiana who do not speak English or do not speak English well.  In the past, the National Weather Service has offered a third-party translation of important weather information in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Samoan.

Those translations were being performed by Lilt, an artificial intelligence company. The contract between Lilt and the federal government has expired so the company is no longer providing the service. Some believe the contract lapse is a part of the current administration's plans to reduce federal spending. Others say, no, it's just a lapse in a contract.

Regardless, until the issue is resolved if you know someone who is not a strong English speaker please make sure that when important weather bulletins are announced they are apprised of the potential danger. Fortunately, for Louisiana, this will be a very quiet week as far as weather conditions are concerned.

But in the event the forecast does take a turn for the worse please make sure French speakers, Vietnamese speakers, and Spanish speakers in your inner circle are notified of any potential threat that could come from the weather.