Amaravati / Bhubaneswar: Cyclone Arnab, a very severe cyclonic storm, stalled close to India's east coast on Wednesday morning, with the landfall process expected to last about two more hours, authorities said. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) described the system as "practically stationary" — the edge of the storm has moved on to land, but its centre remains over the Bay of Bengal, Reuters reported.
Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse
More than 180,000 people — yaani 1.8 lakh — have been evacuated in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha ahead of and during Arnab's arrival. No loss of life has been reported in either state so far, though power supplies have been disrupted and trees uprooted; some schools have been closed and some train and flight services cancelled. Operations at three Andhra Pradesh airports were suspended, India's civil aviation ministry said, according to Reuters.
Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse
On the ground in Andhra Pradesh, seawater entered homes in coastal areas of Kakinada and several houses were damaged, ANI reported, while trees were uprooted and power lines snapped in Kakinada and trees fell across roads in Visakhapatnam, including Beach Road and Seethammadhara. The weather department said the rear portion of the storm's wall cloud was expected to enter the coast within the hour to complete the landfall process, with the centre lying over the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts to the south of Yanam. Extremely heavy rainfall of over 200 mm was recorded at several locations in Anakapalli and Visakhapatnam districts between Tuesday morning and the early hours of Wednesday, ANI reported.
Source: ANI via Apna MA TV
In Odisha, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said the landfall process had started around 1:30 a.m. at Kakinada and the system, after entering the Andhra coast, would move north and northwest towards Malkangiri. "We have deployed 313 response teams in different locations, including 60 ODRF teams, 9 NDRF teams and 244 fire and emergency teams. A whopping number of 2,037 shelters are ready," he said, adding that there were no casualties yet and that "achieving zero casualties is our primary motto."
Source: Odisha minister Suresh Pujari, via PMN Sports / ANI reporting
Arnab is classified by the IMD as a very severe cyclonic storm, the third-highest category on its scale, and it started making landfall earlier than expected. In neighbouring Nepal, authorities on Tuesday warned tourists against venturing into high-altitude areas over fears that Arnab could trigger torrential downpours, snowstorms and avalanches in the Himalayan region from Thursday night through Saturday, Reuters reported. The Bay of Bengal has spawned some of India's deadliest storms, including the 1999 Odisha super cyclone that killed nearly 10,000 people.
Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse
A stalled cyclone keeps its strongest winds and heaviest rain over the same coastal districts for hours instead of moving inland and weakening — raising the risk of flooding, storm-surge damage and power outages in Kakinada, Yanam and the north Andhra coast even without a higher wind speed.