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Indian authorities have ordered nearly 100,000 people to evacuate their homes in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha as a severe cyclone is forecast to make landfall by Wednesday, prompting emergency preparations across the region.
Cyclone Arnab is expected to hit the coast of Andhra Pradesh as a “very severe cyclonic storm”, bringing wind gusts of up to 150 kilometres per hour, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a bulletin.
Torrential rain battered the coast near the port city of Kakinada, where huge waves crashed ashore as the storm approached.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Kotesh Kumar, 35, told AFP, adding that authorities had advised residents to stock up on groceries.
“There was a cyclone here three years ago, but the water didn’t rise this much,” he said.
Indian media reported that around 50,000 people had been ordered to move to safer locations in Andhra Pradesh and another 48,000 in Odisha.
The IMD warned that the cyclone could completely destroy thatched houses, trigger localised flooding, uproot power and communication poles and cause widespread damage to standing crops.
In Kakinada, police erected barricades on roads leading to the sea.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu ordered continuous monitoring of the storm and advance precautionary measures, his office said on Monday.
“Adequate shelters and evacuation arrangements have been made,” New Delhi’s Cabinet Secretariat said.
Odisha has opened 1,735 cyclone shelters and restricted movement in landslide-prone areas, the state’s information office said.
Local media reported that authorities in Andhra Pradesh ordered evacuations in vulnerable low-lying areas and closed educational institutions in some districts from Tuesday until Saturday.
More than 4,700 pregnant women living in potentially dangerous areas were moved to hospitals, The Indian Express reported.
Regional weather warnings
Neighbouring Sri Lanka and Nepal have also issued weather warnings as the storm threatens to bring heavy rainfall and other hazards.
Sri Lanka closed schools amid warnings of torrential rain, with the country’s Department of Meteorology cautioning that storms could trigger flash floods and landslides.
The military has been placed on alert, Colombo’s Disaster Management Centre said.
Nepal’s disaster authority warned on Tuesday that the storm, moving inland towards the Himalayas and expected to reach the region overnight Thursday, could bring heavy rainfall, heavy snowfall, snowstorms and avalanches.
It urged tourists to avoid travelling to high mountain areas and advised those already there to remain in safe locations.
Nepal is still recovering from a devastating August 26 flood triggered by a glacial mountain collapse, which swept away more than 1,400 people and left over 5,000 missing, according to the report.
Cyclones are a recurring threat in the Bay of Bengal and the northern Indian Ocean. They are known as hurricanes in the North Atlantic and typhoons in the Pacific.
