Community preparedness to flood disaster in Johor, Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysia is a country that is affected by monsoonal floods yearly causing a significant amount of casualties, displacement of communities, damages to property and crops. The flood affects the community extensively and it is crucial for them to be prepared to reduce the risk faced in the event of a flood disaster. This study aims to determine the current level of flood preparedness amongst communities in Segamat, Johor as well as other contributing factors to preparedness such as attitude towards flood, risk perception, trust in agencies, sense of community and intention to prepare. A total of 22 villages were selected with the assistance of the District Office ensuring villages at risk were selected and a total of 150 self-administered questionnaires were distributed. Using descriptive analysis, the findings indicated that the other factors above were moderate to high and overall preparedness level was found to be moderately low. Measures taken by the respondents such as owning a first aid kit and financial preparedness such as purchasing property insurance and emergency savings were found to be much lower than other measures of preparedness.