"Help's nearby, if not the 911 worker...

"For callers who speak a foreign language, firm uses interpreters around the globe"

By Dane Schiller, Houston Chronicle

"Emergency workers answering the city's 911 calls hear it all: people screaming, fighting, crying, dying and even giving birth.

"But when it comes to Houston's challenges - such as when a panicked caller speaks Fulani, Dinka or countless other foreign languages - they need help.

"Because of its increasingly diverse population, Houston and other major cities are hard-pressed to field enough foreign-language-speaking 911 operators, let alone have them available around the clock.

"As a result, the Houston Emergency Center, housed in a fortified high-security building on North Shepherd, reaches out to Language Line Services, a California-based company that can connect a call with a native-speaking interpreter in any of 18 time zones."

Read the complete Houston Chronicle article here