Cyclone Arnab: 21 flights cancelled, 2,199 shelters open as Andhra waits for landfall near Yanam on 28 October

Cyclone Arnab will reach the Andhra Pradesh coast sooner than first thought. The India Meteorological Department now expects the very severe cyclonic storm to cross between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam, close to Yanam, in the forenoon of 28 October, with sustained winds of 125 to 135 km/h and gusts to 150 km/h. At the 11.30 am bulletin on 27 October it lay about 170 km south-south-east of Visakhapatnam, moving west-north-west.

The department warns of a storm surge of up to 2.5 metres above the astronomical tide, enough to flood low-lying ground around Kakinada at landfall. The sea is already over the edge in the Pithapuram area, where waves have reached Uppada, Konapapet and Moolapet. People in low-lying coastal areas have been told to move to safety and stay there until the afternoon of 28 October. A red warning for extremely heavy rain covers coastal Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh for landfall day, and Telangana is in line for heavy to very heavy rain.

Planes and trains stop

About 21 flights from Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam airports have been cancelled. Visakhapatnam lost 16 services on 27 October. For 28 October, IndiGo has cancelled all 12 of its flights at Vijayawada, Air India has dropped its morning service to Delhi and Fly91 has pulled its flights. South Central Railway has cancelled the Godavari Express, Falaknuma Express, Narsapur Express and Garib Rath among other trains from Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Lingampally, and is watching about 600 km of track across its Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam divisions.

Shelters, hospitals, boats

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said he had reviewed the situation four times during the day and was in constant touch with district collectors. “Protecting every life is our foremost priority as Andhra Pradesh prepares to face cyclone Arnab,” he wrote on X. Ministers Nara Lokesh and Vangalapudi Anitha are monitoring from the Real Time Governance Society’s control room.

The state has identified 2,199 cyclone shelters and moved 2,360 pregnant women to hospitals. Twelve NDRF and ten SDRF teams are being placed in the districts, and more than 8,400 electricity staff have been mobilised to restore supply. Health officials have 1,087 medical teams, 8,281 emergency beds and 1,274 ambulances ready. More than 30,000 fishing boats are tied up ashore, and 14,686 ration shops hold two months of essential stock. Cyclone alerts have gone to 2.70 crore phones across 18 districts and crop advisories to 35.96 lakh farmers.

Prakhar Jain, managing director of the state disaster management authority, asked people to stay indoors, keep phones charged, keep off beaches, riverbanks and fallen power lines, and follow only official updates. Fishermen are barred from the sea until clearance is given. The Manamitra WhatsApp line 9552300009 takes cyclone complaints.