Cyclone Arnab landfall complete near Yanam: three dead in Andhra Pradesh, 70,900 hectares of paddy under water, Naidu asks Centre for assessment teams

Cyclone Arnab landfall on the Andhra Pradesh coast is over. The storm began crossing near Yanam in the early hours of Wednesday, 28 October, and took more than six hours to move fully inland. In its 9.50 am bulletin, the India Meteorological Department placed the centre entirely over land, about 20 km east of Narsapur. Winds at landfall blew at 125-135 kmph, gusting to 150 kmph, and the system weakened into a severe cyclonic storm at 8.30 am.

Three dead in Andhra after Cyclone Arnab landfall

Three people have died in Andhra Pradesh and 31 houses have been damaged, National Disaster Response Force Inspector General Narendra Singh Bundela told reporters in New Delhi on 28 October. Two of the deaths were electrocutions. A 53-year-old man in Visakhapatnam district touched a live wire that had snapped over a field channel on the night of 27 October, and a 55-year-old woman in Yellamanchili town, Anakapalli district, stepped on an exposed live wire outside her home on the morning of 28 October.

In a teleconference with 32,000 officials, including district collectors, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu ordered fallen trees cleared from roads within two hours and power restored as soon as the winds drop.

Naidu has also written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, asking for central teams to be sent early to assess the damage. The letter names Konaseema, Kakinada, East Godavari, West Godavari, Anakapalli and Krishna as the worst-hit districts. Sixteen NDRF and 11 SDRF teams are at work across 14 districts, and more than 28,000 people are in relief centres. Preliminary estimates in the letter put about 70,900 hectares of paddy under water and horticulture crops damaged on 10,450 hectares, with around 180 houses damaged and more than 220 trees down across roads.

Konaseema and Kakinada take the brunt

Gusts of up to 130 kmph brought down trees and electric poles across Konaseema, Superintendent of Police Rahul Meena said. More than 10,000 people from low-lying areas were moved to about 495 shelters, and the water pushed in by the storm surge has drained without flooding any village.

In Kakinada, a few hundred trees and fewer than 100 electric poles fell, and the coastal Uppada road was washed away completely, Superintendent of Police G Bindu Madhav said. In Alluri Sitarama Raju district, an old bridge at Tadiguda in Anantagiri mandal gave way and cut off a hamlet.

The State Disaster Management Authority has kept a red alert for heavy to very heavy rain in 11 districts, from Bapatla and Krishna to Visakhapatnam, and an orange alert in five more. The rain also reaches eastern Telangana, where four districts are under an orange alert.