Miami, Florida – June 3, 2020 – The start of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season on June 1st naturally brings increased anxiety as Caribbean residents brace for the unpredictability of natural disasters across the region. This year, however, tensions are even higher as Caribbean countries are battling against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
C&W
Communications, a Liberty Latin America company and operator of the Flow, BTC
and UTS brands in the Caribbean, wants to assure the customers and communities
it serves of the comprehensive preparation measures being put in place for what
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) have predicted will be
a fairly active 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. Already on May 17th,
the first named sub-tropical storm, Arthur, jumped ahead of the official season
start, though fortunately it did not gain sufficient strength to pose a threat
to the region.
Inge
Smidts, CEO, C&W Communications, said, “Connectivity has never been more
critical in this region. Our networks are enabling millions of customers to
stay connected at a time when physical distancing has become the ‘new normal’.
Our regional governments, healthcare systems and educational facilities are all
relying on our services to manage their operations in a new world of
e-government, virtual meetings and online learning. We too, have had to adapt
our operations to embrace the challenges of COVID-19 to keep our employees safe
and employed and enable our customers to stay connected.”
Smidts
continued, “At the same time, we are focused on preparing our world-class
networks for the 2020 hurricane season. Our teams have already begun their
rigorous checks on our hurricane- tested network, which has enabled our
business and residential customers in the region to stay connected through much
of the devastating Atlantic hurricane activity over the past few years. We
continue to invest in important redundancy capabilities across our vast sub-sea
network and in data centers located outside of the ‘hurricane belt’, which
provide an additional layer of protection for connectivity in the region. The
ability to stay in contact with loved ones throughout natural disasters has
always been important to our customers in the region and we are very proud to
play this vital role.”
Across its
markets, the company has already completed a number of rigorous hurricane
drills and has launched its awareness campaigns encouraging customers to be
vigilant and make their preparations for the 2020 season.