Naidu puts Andhra on high alert as Cyclone Arnab heads for the coast

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu put the state administration on high alert on Sunday as Cyclone Arnab gathered strength over the Bay of Bengal, telling officials to “prioritise public safety and work towards zero casualties” before the storm reaches the coast later this week.

At a high-level review with officials from 10 departments and the district collectors, Naidu ordered fishing boats back to shore and stopped fishermen from putting out to sea. He told officials not to wait for the final landfall forecast and to finish precautionary arrangements in advance, saying that “protecting lives must remain the administration’s foremost priority”.

The India Meteorological Department expects the system to cross the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coast between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam around Wednesday morning as a very severe cyclonic storm, with sustained winds of 115 to 125 km/h gusting to 140 km/h.

Crews in place before the storm

Naidu directed that electricity restoration teams and equipment be positioned ahead of landfall, and asked telecom operators to be ready to restore mobile networks quickly if towers go down. District administrations have been told to open control rooms, issue regular warnings to the public and use satellite data and forecasts to plan evacuations. The state will put out cyclone bulletins every four hours.

The irrigation, health, energy, agriculture, home and civil supplies departments were asked to work together, and officials were told to prepare for heavy inflows into rivers and reservoirs, flooding and disruption to essential services. Complaints and emergency calls from affected areas are to be handled immediately, the chief minister said.

Where the storm is

By Sunday the depression over the east-central and southeast Bay of Bengal had become a deep depression. Its centre lay about 870 km east-southeast of Visakhapatnam, 960 km from Kakinada and 1,130 km east of Bapatla, according to the IMD’s Amaravati centre. It is forecast to become a cyclonic storm on Monday morning, a severe cyclonic storm by Tuesday and a very severe cyclonic storm by Wednesday morning, when it nears the coast.

Heavy to very heavy rain is expected over coastal Andhra Pradesh from Tuesday to Thursday. On Tuesday, Kakinada, Konaseema, East Godavari, West Godavari, Eluru and Yanam are under a red alert for extremely heavy rain. On Wednesday the red alert widens to 11 districts and Yanam, taking in Visakhapatnam, Alluri Sitharama Raju, Anakapalli, NTR, Krishna and Guntur. The IMD said the downpour “would likely disrupt normal life”.

Neighbours brace too

Odisha’s southern districts are also expecting heavy to very heavy rain from Tuesday, and the IMD has advised fishermen along both coasts to stay out of the sea. Odisha cancelled the leave of its district collectors and shut schools in five districts on Saturday.