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Cyclone Arnab is no longer a very severe storm — but for the coast it crossed, the danger has changed shape rather than ended. After coming ashore early on Wednesday, October 28, with sustained winds of 125–135 kmph gusting to 150 kmph, the storm weakened through the day, first to a severe cyclonic storm and then on a forecast track towards a cyclonic storm and a deep depression. The wind is easing. The rain, the flooding and the clean-up are not over, and the storm's inland rain footprint now stretches across Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal. This is the aftermath: what weakened, what flooded, and what is still to come. Our landfall post this morning covered the crossing itself; this is what happened after it.
How the storm weakened — and why the rain outlasts the wind
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the cyclone crossed the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts south-west of Yanam, near Narsapur, between about 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Wednesday, with the landfall process itself stretching over several hours because the storm was moving at just 3 kmph as it neared the shore. By 8:30 a.m. it had weakened to a severe cyclonic storm, and the IMD forecast it to weaken further into a cyclonic storm and then a deep depression through Wednesday afternoon, tracking north-northwestwards over the following 48 hours. That sequence matters because a weakening cyclone does not stop raining: the heaviest rain often falls as the storm moves inland and loses its structure, which is why the IMD kept red alerts for extremely heavy rainfall in Anakapalli, Alluri Sitharama Raju, Kakinada, Konaseema, East Godavari and West Godavari districts, with very heavy rain forecast for Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and neighbouring districts. The storm surge of 1.5 to 2.5 metres above the astronomical tide, highest near Kakinada and Yanam, flooded low-lying areas as the storm came ashore, and reports put the highest rainfall totals above 300 mm in the wettest spots in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
Kakinada worst hit — but damage reports differ by the hour
Kakinada, close to the heart of the storm, was among the worst-hit districts. According to the Deccan Herald's account, large trees were uprooted, electricity poles toppled, roofs were blown off houses, and streets and low-lying areas flooded, with rainwater entering homes — and on the city's outskirts, Pagadalapeta suffered heavy damage, with rainwater even entering some relief shelters. A later local assessment was calmer: Kakinada's Superintendent of Police said a few hundred trees and fewer than 100 electric poles were uprooted, with no major damage reported and rainfall subsiding after 1 a.m. Both can be true at different hours of the same day — early damage reports describe the storm's peak, later ones describe a city already clearing up — and residents emerged on Wednesday onto flooded streets to what Channel News Asia described as limited damage in the city itself. The wider picture is consistent across outlets: uprooted trees and poles, blocked roads, power outages and damaged crops and civic infrastructure, with Konaseema district alone reporting nearly 6,000 uprooted electricity poles according to one local account.
What is still coming: Odisha, West Bengal and the casualty confusion
The storm's second act is inland. Around 50,000 people were moved to safer areas in Andhra Pradesh and about 48,000 in neighbouring Odisha, according to Channel News Asia's account, and Odisha districts remained on alert as the system tracked north-northwestwards. In West Bengal, heavy rain and gusty winds lashed coastal areas including Digha, with alerts extended across coastal districts — and reports disagree on the end date for the heavy rain, some saying October 30 and others October 31, so the honest forecast is a range: heavy rain through October 30–31, easing as the system weakens. One thing this post deliberately does not do is give a casualty toll: casualty reports conflicted sharply during the day — the Chief Minister's morning statement said no loss of life had been reported, while later local reports cited electrocution deaths — and no single consolidated official toll had been confirmed at the time of writing. Anyone quoting one number for Arnab's toll today is quoting one moment in a moving story, not the settled record. The practical advice stands regardless of the toll: stay away from fallen power lines, do not wade through flooded roads, and follow district administrations' orders, not social media posts, on return. Arnab crossed the coast in hours; its rain, flooding and restoration will take days.