International Institute of Buffalo rereleases winter storm prep information in more languages

4 languages added this year to prepare more new Americans and others unfamiliar with WNY winter weather

The International Institute of Buffalo (IIB) has updated and rereleased what it called “important lifesaving information” in many languages on its website “to help more people prepare for the coming winter weather.” The URL is iibuffalo.org/snow. 

IIB translated the winter weather preparedness information flyers into many of the top languages spoken in Western New York, including Arabic, Burmese, Dari, English, French, Karen, Pashto, Somali and Swahili. Additionally, this year the institute added Bengali, Spanish, Kinyarwanda and Ukrainian. 

“Many of our recent new arrivals have never experienced a winter before, let alone a Buffalo winter,“ said Jennifer Rizzo-Choi, executive director of the International Institute of Buffalo. “Let’s make sure our newest neighbors have the information that they need to be prepared and to stay safe; that’s what living in the City of Good Neighbors is all about, isn’t it?”

Noting that winter weather does not have to rise to the level of last year’s generational blizzards to be dangerous, Rizzo-Choi is encouraging everyone to download the PDFs or pass the URL along to their relatives, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and anyone else who might benefit from the information.

The IIB is also encouraging local governments, libraries, schools, clubs, faith-based organizations and other institutions to print out the flyers to post them on bulletin boards, put them on their websites, or include the iibuffalo.org/snow URL in their emails, newsletters, and on other digital platforms.