At least three died and about 70,900 hectares of crops were damaged as Cyclone Arnab hit Andhra Pradesh

At least three people died when Cyclone Arnab crossed the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coast early on Oct. 28, 2026, and the state’s chief minister put the crop area hit at about 70,900 hectares. The India Meteorological Department said the storm came ashore as a very severe cyclonic storm and weakened to a severe one over land. Wire coverage gave a different farm-damage number, 79,000 acres, and the two figures do not agree.

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Both numbers are provisional, and neither has yet been replaced by a formal assessment.

Three confirmed deaths, mostly from live wires and a falling tree

The National Disaster Response Force confirmed three deaths in Andhra Pradesh, according to the Daily Pioneer’s report on the storm weakening over land. It named three cases: a 53-year-old man in Visakhapatnam district who touched a live wire on Tuesday night, a 55-year-old woman in Yellamanchili, Anakapalli district, who stepped on an exposed live wire on Wednesday morning, and Chokka Kishore Kumar, 46, killed by a falling tree in Bhimavaram, West Godavari district, around 12:30 a.m. The Associated Press account on Mongabay describes the same toll of at least three but places the deaths differently: two women electrocuted in separate incidents in Visakhapatnam and one person killed by a tree in East Godavari district.

The toll is not settled. South First reported seven deaths across four districts, and the Daily Pioneer notes the state had issued no consolidated count. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah reported no human casualties, which conflicts with the response force’s figure. The state announced an ex-gratia payment of 5 lakh rupees for each family of a cyclone-related death, according to Nation Path India.

70,900 hectares against 79,000 acres

The Indian figure comes from Naidu himself. In his letter to Shah, as reported by the Daily Pioneer, he put the affected crop area at about 70,900 hectares, including paddy, and called the numbers provisional. A hectare is about 2.47 acres, so 70,900 hectares is roughly 175,000 acres. The 79,000 acres reported by the Associated Press, and repeated by AccuWeather, converts to about 32,000 hectares, less than half the state figure. No source read explains the gap, which may reflect different survey dates, different definitions of damage, or a unit slip in transit.

A later report points toward the larger number. Nation Path India, citing Akashvani News on Oct. 29, said preliminary estimates exceed 80,000 hectares: over 70,000 hectares of paddy and more than 10,000 hectares of horticultural crops. Naidu also separated out about 10,450 hectares reported inundated or damaged within his total. The Associated Press said Konaseema district was the worst hit, with banana and coconut plantations extensively damaged and many trees and electricity poles uprooted, disrupting power across the district.

Evacuations before landfall and the request to the Centre

The preparations were large. Before landfall, ThePrint, citing a Press Trust of India report, said the state had moved over 84,000 people to shelters, identified 2,199 cyclone shelters and estimated 7.16 lakh hectares of agricultural crops and 16 lakh hectares of horticultural crops could be affected. Naidu told reporters that saving every life was the government’s priority and that fishermen must not go to sea until cleared. Prakhar Jain, who heads the state disaster management authority, said more than 12 million people lived along the expected path, with over 2,000 shelters across 20 districts and nearly 1,100 medical teams deployed.

The forecast explains the scale of the preparations. ThePrint’s pre-landfall report put maximum sustained winds at 125 to 135 kmph with gusts to 150 kmph, rainfall of up to 30 centimeters in Srikakulam, 28 in West Godavari and 23 in Visakhapatnam, and swelling in the Nagavali and Vamsadhara rivers. State planners warned that as many as 15,000 electric poles could be uprooted and arranged 8,400 personnel on standby for power restoration, which fits the pole and power damage later reported in Konaseema. State disaster officials said winds reached 135 kmph by late Wednesday morning.

Evacuation totals vary by source and date: at least 180,000 people in an official statement quoted by the Associated Press, more than 220,000 in AccuWeather’s account, and more than 28,000 in relief shelters at one point per the Pioneer. In neighboring Odisha, Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari was quoted as saying more than 30,000 people had been moved.

Damage to housing is also counted differently. The response force confirmed 31 damaged houses and 714 affected villages, according to its Inspector General Narendra Singh Bundela, while Naidu cited about 180 damaged houses, mostly in Konaseema. AccuWeather forecaster Jason Nicholls described Arnab as the first very severe cyclonic storm to hit Andhra Pradesh since Titli in October 2013, and its account of the storm calls it the strongest in the northern Indian Ocean since Mocha in 2023.

Naidu asked the Centre to send an inter-ministerial team to assess losses, and the Union Home Ministry said on Oct. 29 that central teams would be dispatched. Their assessment will decide which of the competing crop numbers, 70,900 hectares or 79,000 acres, enters the record used to calculate relief.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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