Cyclone Arnab approaches India’s east coast as mass evacuations begin

Cyclone Arnab brought heavy rain to India’s east coast on Tuesday as authorities evacuated vulnerable communities and cancelled transport services ahead of its expected landfall in Andhra Pradesh.

The India Meteorological Department said the “very severe” cyclonic storm was about 170 km south of Visakhapatnam on Tuesday afternoon and moving west-northwest over the Bay of Bengal. It forecast that Arnab would turn northwest and cross the Andhra Pradesh-Yanam coast between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam, near Yanam, by Wednesday morning. Maximum sustained winds were expected to reach 125-135 kmph, with gusts of up to 150 kmph.

Nearly 89,000 people along the Kakinada coast were being moved to relief camps, according to Scroll.in. In Odisha, officials said more than 48,000 people had been relocated from vulnerable areas across eight districts as heavy rain began. The state opened 135 cyclone shelters and 1,600 temporary shelters and deployed fire, disaster-response and national relief teams.

Red warnings were in effect for parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh and southern Odisha, where heavy to extremely heavy rainfall was forecast. Disaster-response teams were also deployed in Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Yanam.

Indian Railways cancelled more than 70 trains, activated round-the-clock emergency coordination centres and placed about 600 km of track under close monitoring. Authorities in Nepal also advised tourists to avoid high-altitude areas because the storm could bring heavy rain, snowstorms and avalanche risks later in the week.