Evaluation of services provided in earthquake disasters in Turkey (1999-2020): A qualitative research

The study was conducted in the form of interviews with 30 people over the age of 18 who experienced one of the Gölcük (1999), Van (2011) and Elazığ (2020) earthquakes and who wanted to participate in the study voluntarily. It aims to evaluate the services they received after the disaster with a qualitative research method. In the study, a semi-structured interview form consisting of 3 interview information, 8 socio-demographic information and 21 questions that can measure all aspects of the selected topic was created. The interviews were recorded with a voice recorder, then transcribed and transferred to the MAXQDA 2020 qualitative data analysis program. After that the transcript documents were encoded. Categories were obtained from the coding, and themes were obtained from the categories. 21 themes were created for earthquakes. According to the results of the study, it is seen that important steps have been taken and improvements have been made in many areas. It has been determined that serious acceleration has been gained especially in areas such as health, shelter, nutrition, search and rescue. It has been determined that institutions can be organized faster in disaster situations. The participants stated that the state support for the services provided in the earthquake disaster and the improvement works carried out in the later stages is quite remarkable. It has been determined that the services offered at the point of psychosocial support, CBRN, protection and control of animals need to be improved. As a result; it can be said that since the Gölcük (1999) earthquake, important steps have been taken in terms of disaster management and serious improvements have been made. It is thought that the adaptation of institutions to innovation together with increasing the sensitivity of citizens will contribute positively to the radical applicability of disaster management policies. Keywords: Disaster Management, Earthquakes, Services Offered in Disasters, Qualitative Research in Disasters, Planning in Disasters