Cyclone Arnab Weakens to Depression as Floods Strand Hundreds in Odisha
Cyclone Arnab weakened into a depression over central Chhattisgarh on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, India's weather agency, the India Meteorological Department (IMD), said, according to The Hindu. Floodwaters from the storm have cut off about 300 villages in Odisha's Ganjam district, and the state government is planning to airlift roughly 120 people stranded in flooded areas there, Hindustan Times reported.
The Hindu reported that IMD expects a separate low-pressure area over the south Andaman Sea to strengthen into a depression around Oct. 31, 2026, and move west-northwest toward the Andhra Pradesh coast over the following two days.
Hindustan Times reported that in Ganjam, Patrapur recorded 546 millimeters of rain in the 24 hours ending at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, the heaviest single-day rainfall total anywhere in Odisha in 35 years, according to the state's special relief commissioner's office. About 2,000 people were stranded in waterlogged parts of the district, Chief Secretary Anu Garg said, and the state was coordinating with the Coast Guard to carry out the airlift at four locations. About 300 meters of National Highway 326 at Ledabandha, in Gajapati district's Mohana block, was washed away by floodwaters, cutting off road traffic between Mohana and Ganjam. Rising water over two railway bridges in the Ichchapuram-Jhadupudi section led the Railways to cancel nine trains and divert 14 others as a precaution.
In Andhra Pradesh, where Arnab made landfall as a very severe cyclonic storm after rapidly intensifying, the cyclone killed five people, The Hindu reported. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu named the dead, including two from the Visakhapatnam region, and announced a relief and compensation package for affected families, farmers, fishermen and businesses.
In a separate report, The Hindu said the storm also caused an estimated ₹500 crore in damage to Andhra Pradesh's power sector, according to Energy Minister Gottipati Ravi Kumar. Crews had restored electricity to 4,765 of the 5,400 villages that lost power, with Visakhapatnam district reaching full recovery, Kumar said.
Rain from the system has also spread into West Bengal, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, The Hindu reported. Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke with the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Puducherry and pledged federal assistance, and teams from the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force were carrying out rescue and relief operations, Hindustan Times reported.
