The International Institute of Buffalo rereleases winter multilingual weather preparedness information

Information will help new Americans and others unfamiliar with WNY weather prepare for a significant storm brewing for Christmas weekend

The International Institute of Buffalo (IIB) is rereleasing what it called important life-saving information in many languages on its website to help more people prepare for the coming winter weather. IIB updated the list to include winter weather preparedness information in nine different languages, including Arabic, Burmese, Dari, English, French, Karen, Pashto, Somali and Swahili. 

"We're rereleasing the list with more languages than the original to help as many people as possible," said Jennifer Rizzo-Choi, executive director of the IIB. "This storm is being described as potentially 'historic' and 'high-impact,' which could be very dangerous for people unfamiliar with our weather, regardless of if they're from downstate, let alone from warm weather countries on the other side of the globe." 

“Even though Western New York’s weather is world-famous, that doesn’t mean people know how to prepare for it,” Rizzo- Choi added.

IIB said, “The hope is that community leaders, neighbors and other conscientious Western New Yorkers will distribute the information to the area's immigrant, refugee and asylee communities. Even though many have a working knowledge of English, this critical information will be easier to understand and act upon quickly in a foreign-born person's original language.”

The information is on the IIB website at https://iibuffalo.org/snow/.