Railway authorities say at least 12 trains in eastern India have been cancelled and services on 53 southern coastal routes suspended for Tuesday and Wednesday, ahead of the storm’s forecast landfall.
Nearly 50,000 people had been moved from vulnerable areas of India’s Andhra Pradesh state to shelters by Monday night ahead of Cyclone Arnab, the state’s disaster management authority said. Its managing director, Prakhar Jain, gave the figure to Reuters in remarks carried by Al Jazeera.
The storm formed over the Bay of Bengal and has strengthened since Monday. The India Meteorological Department issued warnings for the coastal states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, classifying Arnab as a “very severe” cyclonic storm.
Jain estimated that 400,000 people in Andhra Pradesh needed evacuation. That figure describes the estimated need, not the number already moved to safety. He said evacuations were continuing.
Regional railway authorities said at least 12 trains had been cancelled in eastern India. Services on 53 routes along the southern coast had also been suspended for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The weather department placed Arnab about 260 km southeast of the port city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The storm was expected to turn northwest and cross the coast by 11:30 a.m. local time (06:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
Sustained winds are expected to reach 115–125 km/h, with gusts reaching 140 km/h, when Arnab crosses the coast. Those are expected landfall conditions, not winds already recorded onshore.
Flooding, power cuts and cancelled transport followed the storm’s October 28 landfall in Andhra Pradesh. India’s weather agency warned that a storm surge could submerge low-lying areas.
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