Coping strategies of vulnerable people in flood disaster prone areas in Ibadan metropolitan city of Oyo State

The study was carried out to investigate disaster coping strategies that disaster victims employed in view of natural disaster that is prevalent today with insufficient government relief materials. Multi-stage sampling technique was used. First, purposive sampling method was used to select five communities that were worst hit by last flood disaster in Ibadan in August 26th, 2011 according to newspaper (www.momentng.com).Using simple random sampling method, two of these five communities were selected in Ibadan, Oyo state. Purposive sampling method was used to select sixty respondents that were interviewed but with ninety five percent return rates (57 respondents). Results indicate that the coping strategies that were best employed by vulnerable groups in the study area include use of past personal saving (mean = 1.5789), help from other members in the community (mean = 1.3684) and assistance from religious associations (mean = 1.2281). There was a relationship between being a member of an association and disaster coping strategy (X2-value = 11.481) at 0.05 significant levels. It was found out that there was a significant relationship between constraints faced by the respondents and coping strategies they employed (r-value = -0.865) at 0.05 levels of significance. It was recommended that formation of useful association should be encouraged among community people with the help of community development agencies and local leaders. Government should intensify their effort in responding to the needs of the vulnerable people when disaster strikes.