Cyclone Arnab Landfall Update: Three Dead in Andhra

The Cyclone Arnab landfall hit India's eastern coast in the early hours of Wednesday, October 28, 2026, and it forced one of the biggest evacuations the region has seen this year. The storm crossed into Andhra Pradesh as a "very severe cyclonic storm" before easing, and it left fallen trees, cut power and flooded roads behind.

What happened at landfall

According to Al Jazeera, the storm brought heavy rain and winds of up to one hundred thirty-five kilometres an hour as it crossed into Andhra Pradesh early on Wednesday. Trees fell onto highways and power supplies were disrupted across the coast.

The India Meteorological Department said the system crossed the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts about twenty kilometres east-northeast of Narsapur, reported The Hindu BusinessLine. Gusts reached up to one hundred fifty kilometres an hour, and the storm weakened to a "severe" cyclonic storm once it moved inland.

It is the third-highest category on the Indian scale at landfall. That sounds abstract until you picture a wall of wind and sea water pushing into villages that sit barely above the tide line.

A massive evacuation

Al Jazeera reported that at least one hundred eighty thousand people were evacuated from Andhra Pradesh and Odisha a day earlier, while authorities said more than twelve million people live in the storm's expected path. Flights and trains were cancelled and some schools closed.

Local counts differ. The Indian Express reported that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said two hundred ninety shelters were open and held more than eighty-four thousand people in Andhra Pradesh alone. More than thirty thousand fishing boats had been called back from the sea.

Flight operations were suspended at Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Rajahmundry, according to the Economic Times. For a coastline packed with students, workers and fishing families, that is a serious shutdown.

The damage and the death toll

Early figures vary, which is normal in the first hours of a disaster. Al Jazeera cited the National Disaster Response Force saying three people died, with Andhra Pradesh the worst affected. Naidu wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah that at least one hundred eighty houses were destroyed and two hundred twenty trees brought down.

Officials in the chief minister's office told Reuters that two of the deaths came from a falling tree and electrocution. Other local outlets, including the Times of India, initially reported only one death, from electrocution in Visakhapatnam. The toll may shift as teams reach cut-off areas.

In Kakinada, police said the coastal Uppada road was washed away, while rescuers pulled stranded residents out of floodwater. Farmland is also at risk, with the Indian Express flagging possible crop damage across a huge area of fields.

Why Nepal and Sri Lanka are watching

The storm's reach goes beyond India. In Nepal, authorities warned trekkers to avoid high-altitude areas because the remnants could bring torrential rain, snowstorms and avalanches from Thursday to Saturday. Trekking permits were suspended for three days at the peak of hiking season.

Nepal is still reeling from a catastrophic mountain collapse in August that killed more than one thousand four hundred people. Sri Lanka also closed schools over flash flood and landslide fears.

What comes next for the coast

The danger is not over once the eye passes. Forecasters said the Cyclone Arnab landfall system would keep dumping rain as it tracked inland toward southern Odisha, and the Hindustan Times reported that heavy rain was expected in parts of Bengal through Saturday. Flash floods and landslides remain a real risk in hilly areas.

Recovery will start with the basics: clearing blocked roads, restoring electricity and checking on families who spent the night in shelters. Many of those who fled have fishing boats, small shops and crops that now need repair, and that kind of loss rarely makes headlines. For young people across the region, the next few days are about checking in on neighbours, sharing verified updates and keeping rumours from spreading online. Our world desk will keep following what happens.

What it means for climate talk

Storms like this land in the middle of a heated global debate. A new UN report this week warned that the ocean's ability to absorb carbon has already weakened as the planet warms, just ahead of the COP31 climate conference in November. Our climate coverage tracks that story.

The one clear takeaway from Arnab is that early warnings worked. Moving people before the wind arrived kept this from becoming a far deadlier event, even with a cyclone of this strength. Check back as the Cyclone Arnab landfall aftermath unfolds and officials update the numbers.