At the onset of the pandemic, the City of San José recognized the critical need to communicate to those most vulnerable to COVID-19 and its effects: residents and businesses who are less-connected to City communication channels and services, low-income residents and those for whom English is not a primary language. In response, the Emergency Public Information Office, a branch of the City’s Emergency Operations Center, partnered with the City’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to create the Language Access Unit (LAU). The LAU activated bilingual City staff to help transcreate life-saving information instead of submitting and waiting for external translators to deliver. City staff quickly and accurately provided translations for videos, press releases, advertisements, social media posts, signage, Flash Reports, and more. Two leads coordinate all requests and harness the linguistic skills of approximately 15 bilingual staff to keep San José’s non-English speaking residents informed. Since its inception, the City’s LAU has provided emergency communications in Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, Hindi and Punjabi. The LAU also delivered emergency communications for civil protest, a wildfire event, and flood preparedness. The LAU transcreated over 200 emergency Flash Reports and created over 60 video flash reports in multiple languages.