Cyclone Arnab crossed the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts on October 28 and weakened over land, leaving damage to crops on about 70,900 hectares, thousands of uprooted poles and a death toll that depends on who is counting.
The death toll is two in The Week, three from the NDRF and seven in The South First, while the Chief Minister’s letter says no human casualties, and the state has not issued a consolidated figure. That gap is itself a finding about how fast data moves in a disaster.
The preparedness numbers are large. More than 28,000 people were in shelters in Andhra Pradesh, 609 schools became rehabilitation centres, 39 NDRF and 80 SDRF teams were deployed and Odisha moved more than 30,000 people.
The next test is recovery, with power restoration, crop assessment by a central team and the flash flood risk in 13 districts.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s letter said the cyclone caused no human casualties, which conflicts with the NDRF’s confirmation, according to the Daily Pioneer.
The NDRF confirmed damage to 31 houses, and the Chief Minister said about 180 houses were hit, mostly in Konaseema district, according to the Daily Pioneer.
The Chief Minister put crop damage at about 70,900 hectares, including paddy, in a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and asked for an early central assessment team.
About 10,450 hectares were reported inundated or damaged, according to the same letter.
District officials reported about 6,000 electric poles uprooted in Konaseema alone, according to the Daily Pioneer.
More than 220 trees fell on state roads, and over 170 were cleared by Wednesday afternoon, according to the Chief Minister as quoted by the Daily Pioneer.
The Visakhapatnam Collector said about 80% of power and water supply had been restored, with about 150 teams clearing trees.
Satellite image of a cyclone over the Bay of Bengal in 2023 (file image, not Cyclone Arnab), CIRA/NOAA via Wikimedia Commons, public domain