Very severe cyclonic storm Arnab crossed the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts in the early hours of Wednesday, October 28, 2026, and then weakened into a severe cyclonic storm, according to the India Meteorological Department. The landfall process is finished and the system now lies entirely over land, the department said in an official release cited by The Hindu.
The IMD said the cyclone came ashore to the southwest of Yanam, near latitude 16.450 N and longitude 81.90 E. That point is roughly 20 km east-northeast of Narsapur, 40 km southwest of Yanam and 60 km southwest of Kakinada. The Hindu reports, citing the Met department, that the coast was crossed between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., with winds of 125 to 135 kmph gusting to 150 kmph at landfall.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said on Wednesday that no loss of life had been reported so far. In a press release quoted by The Hindu, he attributed the absence of casualties to precautionary steps taken by the administration in advance of the storm.
Why it matters
A cyclone of this strength making landfall overnight along a densely populated coastline carries the risk of mass casualties, which is why the state moved people out of low-lying areas before the storm arrived. The official count of zero deaths, if it holds, would reflect that evacuation and preparation effort rather than a weak storm.
The event also tests how quickly essential services can be restored. Roads in several districts were blocked by fallen trees, and power supply was disrupted, so the pace of clearance and repair in the coming days will shape how the response is judged. Agricultural losses, particularly to banana and coconut plantations, are another concern for the state's coastal economy.
Schools turned into shelters as state mobilises
The state converted 609 school campuses into relief shelters for people moved out of cyclone-hit areas on Wednesday, The Hindu reports. Buildings judged unsafe were barricaded, and 78 structures were flagged as at risk of collapse. Schools in 16 coastal districts were closed for the day.
The government mobilised 17,054 volunteers from the NCC, NSS and Scouts to assist with the response. Deputy Chief Minister and Jana Sena Party president K. Pawan Kalyan asked party workers to join the government's relief and rescue operations. He said heavy rain was likely to persist in coastal districts even after the cyclone crossed, and that the administration was concentrating on shifting residents of low-lying areas into camps and supplying food, milk and other necessities.
Chief Minister Naidu held a teleconference with about 32,000 officials and field staff on Wednesday morning. According to The Hindu, he instructed them to remove fallen trees and reopen traffic within two hours, and to restore power once winds had eased enough for crews to work safely. He also asked for early assessments of crop damage and directed officials to limit property damage and return conditions to normal as quickly as possible.
Record rainfall and rescue in Kakinada
North coastal Andhra Pradesh received the heaviest rain as the storm moved through overnight. Data from the Andhra Pradesh Directorate of Economics and Statistics, reported by The Hindu, showed Kannuripalem in Kasimkota mandal of Anakapalli district recorded about 263 mm in the 24 hours to 8 a.m. Wednesday, the highest in the state. Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram district and the 16th Police Battalion campus in Visakhapatnam each recorded about 263 mm and 260 mm respectively.
Thirty-nine automatic weather stations, all in Anakapalli, Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts, exceeded 204.5 mm, the threshold the IMD uses to classify extremely heavy rain. Within Visakhapatnam city, Simhachalam recorded about 238 mm, Madhurawada about 207 mm and RK Beach about 111 mm.
In Kakinada, police rescued four men who had been trapped overnight in a Central Warehousing Corporation godown at Kakinada Anchorage Port after water entered the compound. Kakinada Superintendent of Police G. Bindhu Madhav identified the four as Chintala Durga Prasad, Bommidi Anand Kumar, Soorreddi Nagaraju and Ganga Appala Raju, according to an official release cited by The Hindu. All four were safe and had been reunited with their families; they are natives of Yanam and Kakinada.
Winds eased along the Kakinada coast on Wednesday morning, allowing disaster response teams to begin clearing roads blocked by fallen trees between Kakinada and Amalapuram in the Godavari region. The Hindu reports that many trees were removed along that route and that no human loss had been reported anywhere in the region at the time of reporting.
In Yanam, fallen trees blocked streets across the town after the high winds of the landfall. With rain having stopped, residents came out onto the streets in both Kakinada and Yanam. National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force personnel stepped up work to reopen roads and streets.
Authorities advised residents of Kakinada, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema and West Godavari districts to stay indoors until 11 a.m. In Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema district, banana and coconut plantations were damaged in many areas, The Hindu reports.
According to the IMD's Cyclone Warning Centre in Visakhapatnam, the centre of the storm lay over the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coast, just south of Yanam, at 6.30 a.m. Wednesday. Its 7.30 a.m. bulletin said the rear portion of the storm's wall cloud was expected to cross the coast within the hour, which would complete the landfall.
What to watch next: the state's crop damage estimates, the restoration of power and road access across the affected districts, and whether the official count of no deaths holds as reports come in from remote areas.
