A day after Cyclone Arnab crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast, the storm has weakened inland while Andhra Pradesh counts damaged crops, fallen power poles and a death toll that is still being reconciled.
Cyclone Arnab weakened into a deep depression on Thursday after crossing the Andhra Pradesh coast early on Wednesday as a very severe cyclonic storm, with sustained winds of 125 to 135 kilometres per hour and gusts to 150. The India Meteorological Department said the system was very likely to weaken further into a depression by Thursday morning and then into a well-marked low-pressure area by the evening, while still carrying heavy rain inland.
Andhra Pradesh bore the first impact. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu confirmed five deaths in cyclone-related incidents, involving electrocution, falling electric poles, an uprooted palm tree and a wall collapse, in Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli, Konaseema and the Bhimavaram area. His government announced an ex gratia payment of 5 lakh rupees to each bereaved family, rice and food supplies for households whose homes were inundated, and proposed crop compensation of 35,000 rupees per hectare for banana and 25,000 per hectare for tomato.
The damage assessment published on Thursday puts the toll higher than the chief minister's confirmed figure, reporting nine deaths and standing crops damaged across 224,489 hectares in 14 districts, affecting about 345,000 farmers. Paddy accounts for 209,460 of those hectares, with West Godavari the worst hit at 76,176 hectares. About 15,000 electric poles were uprooted, 126.16 kilometres of road were damaged at an estimated restoration cost of 59.45 crore rupees, and power had been restored in 707 of 857 affected villages, with about 150 still waiting.
The two death tolls have not been reconciled in the reporting so far: the five confirmed by the chief minister and the nine in the preliminary damage assessment come from different stages of the same count, and the figures may still change as assessments continue. The crop and infrastructure figures are preliminary state estimates, not a final survey, and the meteorological department's weakening forecast is the basis for saying the wind threat has passed while the rain threat has not. Odisha, meanwhile, reported no casualties in its initial assessment, with at least 17 districts affected by heavy rain and 43,827 people evacuated to 634 relief centres.
The continuing risk is water, not wind. The meteorological department issued a flash flood risk warning for 13 Andhra Pradesh districts and Yanam, with heavy rain expected in coastal Andhra Pradesh at least until 30 October, and heavy to very heavy rain warnings for southern Odisha and parts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Flights were disrupted for a second day at Vijayawada, Bhogapuram and Rajamahendravaram airports, and restoration crews were still working in Konaseema and West Godavari.
What happens next is the formal damage survey that Andhra Pradesh has asked the central government to support, with the chief minister writing to the Union home minister seeking a central team visit. That survey will settle both the death toll and the compensation bill, and the rainfall warnings running to 30 October will show whether the inland rain produces the flooding officials are warning about.