Cable & Wireless not beaten by Ivan

Friday, September 24, 2004

All the way through and even during the worst onslaught of Hurricane Ivan, Cable and Wireless managed to maintain their communication systems. Albert Anderson, spokesperson for Cable & Wireless, said: “We are pleased that at no time during Hurricane Ivan did we lose entire communications. We suffered from congestion as everyone was trying to keep in touch with their family and friends but our network did not go down, in fact our SMS (text messaging) worked great the entire time and it was the most effective way to communicate.”

Appreciation of the company’s incredible service throughout and in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ivan has been widespread.

“A number of people have phoned or called by our One Technology Square Office or stopped our employees in the street to express their gratitude for helping them to keep in touch with their family and friends during the difficult times as Hurricane Ivan passed over the island” added Mr Anderson.

By Sunday, 19 September, 70% of the company’s GSM mobile sites were up and functioning. Over half the island’s fixed lines were back up. The Fort Street office, George Town has voice and data, meaning that the major banks can operate.

“We are working closely with CUC to ensure that once buildings and homes get electricity we can get telecommunications working,” said Mr Anderson.

“Cable & Wireless is committed to getting resources, equipment and tools onto the island to ensure that no effort is spared in getting communications to all of the districts as soon as possible”

At the new Seven Mile Beach site, most of the plant has been severely affected by the seawater which came ashore during Hurricane Ivan, but crews have been working diligently to find all of the wires and connections in that area to see if there is anything the company can salvage. Although first inspection suggests that all may be lost and the company believes, if that is the case, equipment will be needed to be brought in to get communications quickly restored. This will take some time, so Cable & Wireless are appealing to customers in that area to be patient and understanding.

Anyone with access to the internet can check the website www.candw.ky as the company is endeavoring to keep the site up to date with the areas in which service has been restored.

In spite of their personal circumstances, which in some cases are dire, a lot of Cable & Wireless employees have been working around the clock to get the systems back up and running. The winds from Hurricane Ivan took down a number of poles and they have been doing their best to repair where possible and order replacement materials as required.

“Two days after Ivan passed members of staff went out to East End, North Side, Bodden Town and Savannah to help people who were unable to contact family and friends due to communication in those areas being down,” said Mr Anderson. “Our employees came back into George Town and made the calls on behalf of these people to reassure their family and friends that they were okay. We continue to provide any support we can to persons in the community who need help with communication.”

During the night after Hurricane Ivan, OTS was the home to 450 persons. These included people who were rescued from their flooded homes. C&W staff assisted in every way they could to bring calm to those persons who lost so much as a result of the Hurricane.

“To date we continue to house the Police and 911 in our building - One Technology Square,” added Mr Anderson. “Cable and Wireless is happy that we can offer our facility to these two essential services in these critical times and we were happy to assist our competitors AT&T Wireless and Digicel to get their services back up and running. This has helped us to alleviate some of the congestion on our system”.

The Cable & Wireless stores, Marque by the Cinema and the Anderson Square location, are now open. Unfortunately the Galleria location is too badly damaged to reopen. Customers in the outer districts are being asked to watch out for the Cable & Wireless big orange and yellow mobile van which will be heading out around the island to sell phones and phone cards over the next few days.

There is no doubt that Cable & Wireless have made an invaluable contribution to Grand Cayman during our ordeal and it should not be forgotten anytime soon.

... Committed and willing to serve

On Friday 10 September, the night before the arrival of Hurricane Ivan, Cable and Wireless (Cayman Islands) executives offered shelter to all employees and their immediate families at One Technology Square. This act of real generosity extended to those within the C&W family and was just the first act of many that served to demonstrate the telecommunication company’s commitment to the people of the Cayman Islands.

By the following day, C&W had offered to house 911 at One Technology Square. As of 21 September, just a few of C&W’s accomplishments included: bringing in the first cargo flight to the island after Ivan, sending representatives to shelters in Northside, East End, and Bodden Town to take messages from people in shelters to send out to their loved ones, and setting up a temporary clinic at One Technology Square to assist employees, police, and 911 staff with their medical needs.

In a recent conversation with Timothy Adam, Chief Executive Cable and Wireless (Cayman Islands), and Rudy Ebanks, Vice-President of Regulatory and Carrier Relations and also Chairman of the Crisis Management Team, the two friends who first met in their youth at Cayman Prep School and Cayman Islands High School discussed the work behind the scenes that has many in Grand Cayman extending boundless gratitude to their company.

Amidst the humming, bristling activity in the crisis centre atop One Technology Square, Mr Adam took a few moments to reflect on the past 11 days, with Cayman Net News.

“The first thing we can do is to thank almighty God because no matter how clever man may be, one thing we discover is that there will always exist some risk of failure in anything conceived and created by man,” he humbly stated.

Mr Adam continued: “The second thing that has been reinforced is that the things you choose to do when you don’t have to, those things will determine the things you will have to when you don’t have the choice.”

In looking back Mr Adam and Mr Ebanks recounted a series of steps C&W had taken to ensure successful operations, which proved prudent beyond their expansive imaginations. Mr Ebanks stated: “This building (One Technology Square) has been key. Some 15 million dollars was invested in this building which was deliberately designed for this kind of storm.”

Mr Adam echoed Mr Ebanks comments about what has become to be referred to as ‘The Bunker.’ Mr Adam said “The first one of those things we didn’t have to do at the time was to invest some 15 million dollars in a facility that quite frankly does not allow us to produce any new service, nor in and of itself generate any stream of revenue. But this fulfills C&W’s commitment and responsibility to keep the lines of communication open through all sorts of threatening situations.”

Mr Adam pointed out that the commitment to this project had its roots running deep in the community of Grand Cayman. He stressed that the world class local architect OBM designed the building and that the world class local construction firm Arch & Godfrey erected the soon-to-be completed building when they broke ground in November 2002.

C&W’s investment in a disaster planning and recovery system, along with the company’s investment of time and effort to create a comprehensive robust plan to prepare and for and recover from a disaster, allowed the company to never lose its entire communications during Hurricane Ivan. The company did suffer from congestion as everyone was trying to keep in touch with their family and friends but the network did not go down. In fact, C&W’s text messaging worked the entire time and was the most effective way to communicate.

Mr Ebanks and Mr Adam said it all came down to the people who make up the company. Mr Ebanks said: “Many employees went days without seeing their families and properties and worked long hours displaying sheer hard work”

Mr Adam added: “When it comes right down to it, it was our staff and the decisions they made, the initiatives they took hour after hour. That was how we brought these island’s telecommunications systems securely through the worst national disaster in the recorded history of this country.”

 When Mr Adam spoke of his staff, it was evident that he was proud of the professionalism and expertise displayed by his team. “With those fundamentals in place the protocol and discipline was a given,” he said. It was clear that he believed that he had not only hired the right people, but that they were better than even he imagined.

As for the lessons that Hurricane Ivan provided, Mr Adam could not emphasise enough what he learned about communication. “The thing I learned was a stark realisation of how vital to the preservation of human life is the ability to communicate over a phone.” The friends from childhood, who both joined C&W in July, 1973 on the same day and left for technician training together in the United Kingdom in August of that same year, expressed their own personal thanks to those predecessors in C&W who made their own careers possible. In particular, they both sent gratitude to Lionel G. J. Downer.

Both Mr Adam and Mr Ebanks agree that there has been great satisfaction in seeing the speed of the recovery now underway in Grand Cayman, and knowing from grateful customers that C&W has played a significant part in that return to normality.

Back...