The Role of Coordination And Crisis Communication In Disasters: The Case of 6 February Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes

Crises are situations that both organizations and societies may face and require urgent and right intervention. Crises, which emerge as different and unexpected situations such as economic and social protests, terrorism and internal conflicts, epidemics, natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes), have negative consequences when they are not managed effectively through emergency response. Accurate and truthful information is much needed in crisis environments, where uncertainty, speculation, and rumors spread, along with many other negative aspects. With crisis communication, information activities are carried out to collect and share truthful information about the ongoing crisis and to ensure that the measures taken are perceived correctly. Many coordination and communication problems were encountered in the emergency response processes of the two earthquakes striking Turkey’s Kahramanmaraş province on February 6, 2023 and considered as the biggest disaster of the century in terms of their wide impact area and consequences covering 11 provinces in total. Most of these problems are related to the organizations responsible for disaster response. In the context of solving such coordination problems, the earthquakes once again highlighted the need for an effective communication system and much more comprehensive and planned preparations for crises.