C3 wins International Critical Communications Award 2019 For PPDR Support
On Tuesday June 18th, C3 (Critical Communication Caribbean) was announced as the winner of the International Critical Communications Award 2019 in the category ‘Outstanding Example of After-Sales Support’.
C3 received the prestigious award because of its important work during and after hurricanes Irma and Maria on St. Maarten, for which it was also nominated in the category ‘Best Use of Mission-Critical Communications During a Major Event’. The award was accepted by Bert Schreuders, Managing Director of C3, during a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Mr. Schreuders dedicates the prize to C3’s entire St. Maarten team, and states “To receive this international recognition for this accomplishment is a tremendous honor. I also want to recognize Rohill, as the supplier of our robust Tetra network to make this possible.”
Why did C3 receive this award?
On September 6th, 2017, the islands of St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Saba were devastated by Irma, a category-5 hurricane with winds of 182-mph. Two weeks later, a second category-5 hurricane followed, bearing the name Maria. Essential communication on St. Maarten was hampered by lack of power, back-up batteries that ran out and generators needing to be refueled under difficult circumstances. The devastation and chaos had shocked the community, which made it hard for authorities to maintain safety and order. Three hours after Irma (as soon as the government provided clearance), C3 took action and – after a lot of hard work - successfully re-enabled emergency services to communicate without interruption. This helped the entities to coordinate their actions, deal with urgent situations, maintain law & order in the face of trauma, combat vandalism, and even save lives. According to the judges, C3 has shown “the critical skills and knowledge to deal with major events like category 5 storms”.
