NYC Emergency Broadcast Expands to more Languages, Including Yiddish

Notify NYC – the city’s free, official source for information about emergency events and important city services – has expanded to offer common notifications in 13 languages, including Yiddish, as well as American Sign Language and audio formats.

“The best way to learn about emergencies – the city’s Notify NYC program – just got better with the ability to reach New Yorkers who speak languages other than English,” NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Joseph Esposito said in a statement on Monday. “In an emergency, getting up-to-date and accurate information to New Yorkers is critical. The new multilingual messages will help more New Yorkers to stay safe and informed.”



According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 29% of New Yorkers speak a language other than English at home, the Mayor’s Press Office said in a statement. To provide important information to even more New Yorkers, pre-scripted translations of Notify NYC messages will now be available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Urdu and Yiddish.

Since its inception as a pilot program in December 2007, Notify NYC says it has sent out more than 6,500 notifications about local emergencies; today, more than 380,000 New Yorkers receive alert notifications from Notify NYC. New Yorkers can sign up for emergency alerts by visiting the Notify NYC website, NYC.gov/notifynyc or by calling 311.

Subscribers can receive alerts in seven ways: phone, email, SMS, fax, BlackBerry PIN, Instant Messenger, and Twitter. Non-English speaking subscribers who receive any of the above digital formats will be given an option to follow a link in which the same message is listed in 13 different languages, audio format, and ASL, according to the press release by the Mayor’s Press Office.