Damage assessment for Kelantan flooding: does the early warning instrument mitigates the risk? A case of Kuala Krai, Kelantan

This study will focus on assessing the total amount of damage and losses that has occurred during the 2014 flood disaster in Kelantan. The phenomenon of heavy rainfall during monsoon season is normal in Malaysia especially for the east coastal state areas between November to March every year. With the rainfall rate of 794mm which is 1.6 times higher than the average rainfall from the previous year, it has destroyed dwelling houses, animals, crops and also agricultural land. By using cross-sectional data analysis with Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method on 686 respondents in Kuala Krai, Kelantan, the results showed that early warning indicators such as Short Message Services (SMS) and other flood indicator instruments can reduce the risk of losses due to flood. Meanwhile, the ownership of insurance and an increase in household income is expected to reduce the burden of flood victims in the area.