PHILISBURG, Sint Maarten – The Department of Communication (DCOMM) recently met with the Community Councils and Groups on St. Maarten in preparation for the peak weeks of the 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season that runs from mid-August to mid-October to discuss bi-lateral ways that communication between the two entities can be increased by extension, through the Community Councils from DCOMM, whereby the communities will be more informed about pre and post hurricane and disaster measures by Government.
DCOMM acting Head, Maurice Lake, indicated that the importance of communicating with the different councils and community groups is important and another step in having a storm/disaster-ready nation
not only during the hurricane season but throughout the year.
“The more we can communicate with the public and community through the various products and platforms that DCOMM has at their disposal, the better. We would be reaching the members of the community and the general public with our pre and post disaster messages from Government. This will allow the people to react or respond accordingly in order to decrease the effects of a Hurricane for example.”
DCOMM met with the Community Councils in their Conference room and discussed several important issues and ways of increasing communication to the different communities on St. Maarten, making the process and content more efficient and effective in reaching the audiences.
So, whether is through the general media, social media, and Whatsapp, or through personal contact or community meetings, DCOMM will provide the information to the community, and vice versa—the community can indeed send their questions and inquires to DCOMM, via their ‘social monitor,’ who will then relayed these questions and/or comments to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for follow-up and action.
During the meeting DCOMM provided the community groups with a perusal of the Government’s webpage, the Hurricane Special tab, and had them listen to some of DCOMMs Public Service Announcements, which are some of the products/communication tools available for the community to help them prepare for the Atlantic hurricane season.
Lake thanked the community groups for attending the meeting and indicated that this effort will be ongoing as a disaster could strike at any time and throughout any part of the year and not necessarily only during the hurricane season.
For official weather and hurricane related news for the 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season, you can go to the Government’s information portals of DCOMM’s Facebook/sxmgov, YouTube/sxmgov and website
www.sintmaartengov.org.
DCOMM messages can also be viewed in the daily newspaper on the Government Information Pages and the office can be reached by calling 531-1162, or email dcomm@sintmaartengov.org. At the present moment all PSAs can be heard and seen throughout the day on SXM Gov radio station
107.9 FM and via its social media platforms of Government.
