The very severe cyclonic storm Arnab, which crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast on Wednesday morning, did not cause any human casualties, but considerably damaged crops, properties and other infrastructure, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said in a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah.
Naidu cited preliminary estimates and said the cyclone and rainfall damaged agricultural and horticultural crops spread across approximately 70,900 hectares, including paddy.
“Of this, crops on about 10,450 hectares had been reported inundated or damaged,” he said.
Naidu underlined that the figures are provisional and likely to change as assessment teams completed their field surveys. Four wards in Visakhapatnam were inundated. He added the administration would focus on assisting displaced families and those whose houses were damaged.
Naidu said the state government mobilised its disaster-response machinery throughout the night, deploying 16 NDRF and 11 State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams across 14 districts.
“The state government will share a detailed damage assessment with the Centre after verification,” Naidu said. Naidu said the cyclone’s impact was particularly concentrated along the Godavari delta coast, covering Konaseema, Kakinada, East Godavari and West Godavari, and Krishna and Anakapalli districts. Naidu said medical teams, ambulances, relief supplies, power restoration crews and road-clearance teams had been positioned in affected districts, with collectors leading operations on the ground. Relief and response teams would remain deployed until the threat from rainfall and storm surge had passed, he said. Naidu thanked Shah for the continued support and said the state would watch for rainfall and flooding in the days ahead.
