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Cyclone Arnab bears down on India's east coast as thousands evacuate ahead of landfall

Andhra Pradesh, India • October 27, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

Editorial illustration: a powerful cyclone over India's eastern coastline, with dark swirling clouds, heavy rain and waves crashing on a deserted beach

Editorial illustration — Press Pass USA

Thousands of people have been evacuated along India's eastern coast as Severe Cyclone Arnab, which formed over the Bay of Bengal and has intensified since Monday, heads toward landfall in the southern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday morning, bringing strong winds and heavy rain.

Nearly 50,000 people had been moved to shelters from vulnerable areas by Monday night, out of an estimated 400,000 who need to be evacuated, Prakhar Jain, managing director of the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority, told Reuters on Tuesday. "Evacuation is continuing," Jain said. Preliminary assessments put 16 districts — encompassing 2,460 revenue villages and 92 urban areas — directly in the storm's path, and authorities said 1,763 cyclone shelters had been readied, with National and State Disaster Response Force teams positioned in 11 high-risk districts.

India's weather office said the storm, moving at about 25 km/h over the previous six hours, was centred on Tuesday morning about 300 km from Visakhapatnam, 360 km from Kakinada, 460 km from Machilipatnam and 530 km from Bapatla, and was expected to cross the coast near Yanam — between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam — by Wednesday morning. The weather office warned that Arnab is very likely to intensify further into a very severe cyclonic storm by landfall, with sustained winds of 115–125 km/h gusting to 140 km/h and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places along the coast.

In neighbouring Odisha, there had been no evacuations so far, Special Relief Commissioner Rajesh Prabhakar Patil told Reuters, but the state had already announced the closure of schools and colleges in five districts for Tuesday and Wednesday. Television showed waves crashing on deserted beaches and shuttered shops lining the streets in affected areas. At least 12 trains were cancelled in the east, while rail services on 53 routes along the southern coast were suspended for Tuesday and Wednesday, regional railway authorities said.

In neighbouring Nepal, authorities cautioned tourists against venturing into high-altitude areas, fearing Cyclone Arnab could trigger torrential downpours, snowstorms and avalanches in the Himalayan region from Thursday night through Saturday. The warning comes as the mountainous country is still recovering from a deadly flash flood in August that killed about 1,500 people. The Bay of Bengal is one of the world's major regions for tropical cyclones, leaving India's eastern coast particularly vulnerable to sea-linked weather disasters — and with landfall still hours away, the evacuation effort on Tuesday is a race against the storm's arrival.

Sources: Reuters (Oct 27, 2026); India Meteorological Department and Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority via ANI (Oct 27, 2026).