Cyclone Arnab relief: Rs 5 lakh for each death, Rs 10,000 for every damaged house as the storm weakens over Andhra Pradesh

Families, traders, fishermen and farmers hit by Cyclone Arnab will receive government assistance, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced on Wednesday, 28 October, as the storm weakened over Andhra Pradesh. Speaking at the Real Time Governance Society centre in the Secretariat, he said the government would do justice to everyone who lost crops or property in the cyclone.

Five people died in the cyclone, the Chief Minister said, and the family of each will receive Rs 5 lakh. Every damaged house will get Rs 10,000, and people sheltered in relief camps will get Rs 1,000 each, up to Rs 3,000. Grocery shops and restaurants that suffered damage will receive Rs 25,000. Small and medium businesses get Rs 50,000 if their turnover is up to Rs 40 lakh, Rs 1 lakh for a turnover between Rs 40 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore, and Rs 1.5 lakh above that.

Vehicles, boats and crops

Owners of damaged two-wheelers will get Rs 3,000 and three-wheeler owners Rs 10,000. A fisherman who lost a boat along with its nets will receive Rs 25,000, and Rs 5,000 is set aside for net repairs. Crop assistance runs on a crop-wise scale, from Rs 15,000 for millets and pulses to Rs 35,000 for banana, turmeric and mango and Rs 75,000 for betel vine.

About 15,000 electricity poles came down in the storm. Power has been restored in every district except parts of Konaseema and West Godavari, where the Chief Minister expects supply back by the evening of 30 October. He plans to tour both districts, and the state has asked the Centre to send a team to assess the damage.

Arnab weakens, Tuni under water

Arnab, which crossed the coast near Yanam after a slow landfall, has weakened into a cyclonic storm and is expected to become a deep depression on Wednesday night as it moves inland. Srikakulam, Parvathipuram Manyam, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Anakapalli districts stay on alert until the evening of Thursday, 29 October, with heavy rain likely at a few places.

In Kakinada district, Tuni town went under water after 123 mm of rain, and the Thandava river is in spate with inflows from upstream. Traffic stopped on Narayanaraju Street, Prakasam Road and around the Police Quarters, and officials moved families from low-lying colonies to safer places. Visakhapatnam recorded 21 cm of rain. Earlier in the day, crops on about 70,900 hectares of paddy were reported under water.