Cyclone Arnab leaves at least three dead in Andhra, flattens crops and homes before weakening inland

At least three people were killed in Andhra Pradesh as Cyclone Arnab tore across the state’s coast on Wednesday, 28 October, according to National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official Narendra Singh Bundela, whose count was carried by Reuters, PTI and other agencies. The storm brought down thousands of trees and electricity poles, damaged homes and left vast stretches of paddy under water, before weakening steadily as it moved inland.

Two of the victims were electrocuted and one was crushed by a tree, according to The Pioneer and India TV. A 53-year-old man in Visakhapatnam district touched a snapped live wire on Tuesday night, and a 55-year-old woman in Anakapalli district stepped on an exposed wire on Wednesday morning. In Bhimavaram, 46-year-old Chokka Kishore Kumar died shortly after midnight when a tree fell on him. A newspaper delivery worker there was critically injured after an electric pole crashed onto his moped.

Tallies vary. IANS, in a report carried by Sambad English, put the toll at four, and The Pioneer cited a regional outlet reporting seven deaths. The state government had not issued a consolidated figure by Wednesday evening. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh for each bereaved family, IANS reported.

Homes, crops and power

The damage estimates are still preliminary and differ widely. The NDRF confirmed 31 damaged houses, while Naidu, in a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, put the number at about 180, mostly in Konaseema district, The Pioneer reported. Konaseema and Kakinada were the worst hit.

On farms, the Chief Minister cited roughly 70,900 hectares of crops damaged, including paddy, according to The Pioneer. A later IANS report said preliminary figures showed about 2.24 lakh hectares of farm and horticulture crops inundated or damaged across 14 districts, affecting about 3.45 lakh farmers, with paddy making up 2.09 lakh hectares. Coconut and banana plantations in Konaseema suffered heavily, AccuWeather noted, citing Al Jazeera.

About 6,000 electricity poles were uprooted in Konaseema alone, district officials told The Pioneer, while IANS put the statewide figure at about 15,000. Power had been restored in all districts except parts of Konaseema and West Godavari, where mud and continuing rain were slowing work, IANS said.

Evacuations and relief

More than 28,000 people were moved to relief camps in Andhra Pradesh, according to provisional figures shared by Naidu, and Odisha shifted over 30,000 people to safer places, said its Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari. Reuters, via ABC News, reported that more than 1.8 lakh people were evacuated across the two states before landfall. The state has announced rice rations for families whose homes were flooded and Rs 1,000 per person in assistance from Thursday, IANS reported. Naidu was scheduled to tour Konaseema and West Godavari on Thursday afternoon and has asked the Centre to send a team to assess losses.

Weakening and the road ahead

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that at 5:30 pm IST on Wednesday the system had weakened into a cyclonic storm and lay about 60 km west of Kakinada and west-northwest of Yanam, moving north-northwest at 8 km/h, ANI reported. The IMD expected it to become a deep depression by midnight and then weaken gradually. Manorama Mohanty, who heads the IMD centre in Bhubaneswar, said the remnant was expected to reach Odisha’s Malkangiri district by Wednesday night, The Pioneer reported, and India TV said the system was tracking towards Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

The IMD has issued red warnings for heavy to very heavy rain in six southern Odisha districts, namely Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur. Jharkhand has a heavy-rain warning for nine districts including Ranchi, with schools shut in several districts until Thursday, ETV Bharat reported. Heavy rain is also forecast for parts of West Bengal until 31 October.

Trains and flights

Indian Railways cancelled at least 91 trains in the eastern and southern regions, The Pioneer reported, while the Railway Minister spoke of more than 50 cancellations, according to ETV Bharat. Services on routes into Jagdalpur from Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Howrah were cancelled or diverted, ANI said. At Visakhapatnam airport, 38 flights were cancelled until Wednesday evening, and 18 of 21 Vijayawada flights were scrapped. No full restoration schedule for rail or air services had been announced in the reports reviewed.

Sources

• ABC News (Reuters): At least three killed, thousands evacuated as cyclone hits India’s eastern coast
• The Pioneer: Cyclone Arnab weakens; three dead in Andhra Pradesh
• Sambad English (IANS): Cyclone Arnab kills four, wreaks havoc across coastal Andhra
• ANI: Cyclone Arnab to move north-northwestwards over next 24 hours, weaken further by midnight: IMD
• ETV Bharat: Cyclone Arnab live updates
• India TV: Cyclone Arnab highlights: 3 killed in Andhra Pradesh
• AccuWeather: Cyclone Arnab turns deadly in India
• Bernama: 3 killed as Cyclone Arnab batters southern India