Australia Weather News

How non-English speakers can stay informed as Cyclone Alfred approaches

By Tri Ardhya, Erwin Renaldi and Will Jackson

Communities in the path of Cyclone Alfred are preparing for damaging high winds and possible flash flooding. (ABC News: James Maasdorp)

Accessing information on how to prepare for natural disasters can be difficult for people with limited or no English language.

However, as Tropical Cyclone Alfred approaches the South-East Queensland coast, there are resources available that have been professionally translated into a range of languages.

And artificial intelligence-powered machine translation has been adopted by some organisations that provide emergency updates.

Chairperson Elijah Buol said the Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland had been working closely with the Queensland government to translate information about disaster preparation into 39 languages.

"This information is being shared by organisations and community leaders to actually create awareness and educate their communities," he said.

These translated fact sheets about natural disasters and financial assistance grants are available on the Get Ready Queensland website.

Mr Buol said a community leaders forum was held yesterday to discuss how they should prepare for Cyclone Alfred.

"It was attended by 118 leaders, and the message was, how can we make sure that the community is aware and well-informed, but also to stay safe at this critical time," he said.

Mr Buol said bilingual workers were sending information to community members in their own languages directly via social media platforms including WeChat and WhatsApp.

He said the council also urged multicultural communities having difficulties understanding warnings and alerts to access the federal government's Translating and Interpreting Service.

AI used to translate 'disaster dashboards'

Griffith University research fellow Helen Bromhead said government agencies, such as the Bureau of Meteorology and emergency services, were the best source of natural disaster information.

Dr Bromhead said some local government "disaster dashboards" featured a drop-down menu of non-English languages.

She said AI technology translated some of the vital information, like the current warning in the front of the dashboard, "but some links will take you to English-language sources without the machine translation".

"And, naturally, people have to be careful because machine translations can sometimes be misleading."

The same technology is being used by NSW's SES to translate information on its website.

A full list of the Queensland local government disaster dashboards is available on the Queensland government's Disaster Management website.

Looking for more information?

How to prepare for a cyclone:

  • SBS Australia Explained has an articleHow to best prepare before a severe storm or a flood in Australiaand videoHow to prepare for storms and floods — in 5 stepswhich are both available in more than 28 languages.
  • Get Ready Queensland hastranslated fact sheets about natural disasters and financial assistance grantsinto dozens of languages.
  • Cairns Regional Council has a videoPreparing for Cyclones translated into nine different languages.
  • The NSW SES has a wide range of resources professionally translated into 15 languages availablehere.
  • The federal government also offers an interpretation service for non-English speakershere.

    • Cyclone news and updates:

  • The NSW SES websiteis available translated into 72 languages through Google Translate. You can access all of these languages from a drop-down tab. However, HazardWatch — a web-based app with real-time warnings and information — is only in English.
  • SomeQueensland local councils' disaster dashboardshave built-in machine translation. You can find links to all the dashboardshere.
  • SBS is sharing live radio news and emergency alerts across its 60+ language programsherealong withmultilingual coverage on its news website.
  • TheABC's Chineselanguage team is providing coverage in Chineseon the ABC websiteand live updates onXandFacebook
  • TheABC's Indonesianlanguage team is also providing coverage in Bahasa Indonesia on theABC websiteandInstagram.
  • TheABC's Pacific teamis providing coverage on theABC website,Radio AustraliaandFacebookinEnglishandTok Pisin.

    • ABC