A powerful cyclone has slammed into India’s east coast, killing at least six people, flattening houses and wiping out crops across tens of thousands of hectares. More than 180,000 people were moved to safety in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha before Cyclone Arnab came ashore, an evacuation officials credit with preventing a far higher death toll.
A very severe cyclone makes landfall
Arnab crossed the coast of Andhra Pradesh in the early hours of Wednesday 28 October as a very severe cyclonic storm, the third-highest category on the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) scale. Reports differ slightly on the exact timing, but the storm’s centre came ashore near the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coastline, with forecasters warning of winds of 125 to 135km/h, gusts of up to 150km/h and a storm surge of up to 1.5 metres above normal tide.
It then weakened steadily as it moved inland and north, losing strength to a deep depression by Thursday. Its remnants spread heavy rain across Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal, where the IMD warned of downpours until 31 October.
Death toll and damage
The death toll has crept up as reports came in from affected districts. The Press Trust of India, quoting an official at the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority, said on Thursday that six people had died, the latest an 11-year-old boy killed when a wall collapsed in Tenali. The Kathmandu Post, citing the Indian Express, put the toll at seven. Deaths were blamed on falling trees, collapsing walls, toppled electricity poles and electrocution.
According to Xinhua, coconut, banana and other crops were partly or fully damaged across about 71,000 hectares, a serious blow to farming communities in the region. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu wrote to India’s Home Minister, Amit Shah, reporting at least 180 houses destroyed and 220 trees brought down, and asking for a central team to assess the damage.
Hundreds of villages in more than 10 districts, including Eluru, West Godavari and Vizianagaram, bore the brunt of the storm, the Kathmandu Post reported. Power was cut across large areas, operations were suspended at three airports in Andhra Pradesh, and some train services were cancelled. By Thursday, the state disaster authority said about 90 per cent of blocked roads and downed power lines had been cleared.
Odisha’s ‘zero casualty’ push
Neighbouring Odisha escaped more lightly. The state kept hundreds of rescue teams on standby and closed schools in several southern districts, and its Chief Minister, Mohan Charan Majhi, credited preparation and evacuations for achieving the state’s goal of no deaths.
India’s storm defences have improved dramatically. A super cyclone that hit Odisha in 1999 killed close to 10,000 people, and since then early warning systems and mass evacuations have greatly reduced the loss of life from storms of this kind.
The effects were felt far beyond the coast. Nepal suspended trekking permits for high mountain areas for three days because of the risk of heavy rain and snowstorms, an immigration official told Reuters.
Elsewhere: super typhoon bears down on Pacific islands
On the other side of Asia, Typhoon In-fa was forecast to pass close to or over the remote northern islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the western Pacific, on Friday. The storm briefly reached super typhoon strength on 28 October, and the US National Weather Service in Guam issued a typhoon warning for the islands of Alamagan, Pagan and Agrihan, with destructive winds and coastal flooding of up to two metres possible. Guam itself was expected to see little impact.
What happens next
In Andhra Pradesh, the focus now turns to relief and recovery. Some evacuees remain in shelters and will return home once their villages have been cleaned up, officials said. A central government team is expected to assess the damage following Mr Naidu’s request, which will determine how much federal support the state receives, particularly for farmers who have lost their crops. Further heavy rain is possible in West Bengal and parts of eastern India before the weekend, so the IMD’s warnings remain worth watching.
Sources
- ThePrint (PTI): Arnab cyclone death toll rises to six in Andhra Pradesh (29 October 2026)
- The Kathmandu Post: Cyclone Arnab kills seven in Andhra Pradesh as heavy rain hits eastern India (29 October 2026)
- ABC News (Australia): At least three killed, thousands evacuated as cyclone hits India’s eastern coast (29 October 2026)
- Xinhua: Cyclone Arnab death toll rises to 5 in India (28 October 2026)
- Vajiram & Ravi: Cyclone Arnab 2026, IMD tracker and latest updates (30 October 2026)
- Weatherboy: Category 4 Typhoon In-fa takes aim at remote northern Mariana Islands (29 October 2026)
Featured image: photo by Corryne Wooten on Unsplash.
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