At least three people were killed as Cyclone Arnab struck India's eastern coast on Wednesday, a senior National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official said. "Andhra Pradesh has been most affected … three people have lost their lives," NDRF official Narendra Singh Bundela told reporters, according to Reuters. The very severe cyclonic storm made landfall in Andhra Pradesh early on Wednesday and then moved fully inland.
Source: Reuters
Wire agency ANI separately reported the same toll through a second NDRF official: NDRF DIG (Operations) S. S. Soodan said the State Emergency Operations Centre had reported three casualties so far, that 39 NDRF teams had been deployed — including four airlifted on Tuesday — and that more than 55,000 people had been evacuated from low-lying and coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh.
Source: ANI
First damage tally: houses, trees and crops
In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu put the preliminary damage at about 180 houses — most of them in Konaseema district — and more than 220 trees fallen across state roads, of which over 170 had already been cleared, Telugu360 reported from the letter. Paddy crops were affected across approximately 70,900 hectares and horticultural crops across another 10,450 hectares, a combined 81,350 hectares, with the state clarifying that the figures are preliminary and subject to verification.
Source: Telugu360
The letter, written earlier in the day as a preliminary assessment, had reported no loss of life at that stage and said more than 28,000 people had been shifted to relief shelters; the later NDRF and State Emergency Operations Centre updates reporting three casualties supersede that early figure. Reuters reported that more than 180,000 people had been evacuated across Andhra Pradesh and Odisha ahead of landfall, and that neighbouring Odisha was not as badly affected.
Naidu asked the Centre to dispatch an assessment team at the earliest and to continue NDRF and central agency support, ANI reported. The worst-affected districts named were Konaseema, Kakinada, East Godavari, West Godavari, Anakapalli and Krishna, with 16 NDRF and 11 SDRF teams deployed across 14 districts, control rooms running round the clock, and restoration of electricity and drinking water given priority.
Source: ANI via The Hindu BusinessLine
The state will submit a detailed damage assessment to the Centre after field surveys; road clearance, power restoration and relief-shelter support continue in the six worst-hit coastal districts.