India prepares evacuations as Bay of Bengal system is forecast to hit Andhra Pradesh as a very severe cyclone on 28 October

A weather system over the Bay of Bengal is expected to strengthen into a very severe cyclonic storm and cross India’s Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam by late morning local time on Wednesday 28 October, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday 25 October. It forecast maximum sustained winds of 115-125 km/h, gusting to 140 km/h, at landfall.

At 5:30am local time on Sunday (midnight GMT), the system was a depression about 880 km east-southeast of Visakhapatnam, the IMD said. It expects the system to become a cyclonic storm by Monday morning, when it would be named Arnab, and a severe cyclonic storm by Tuesday morning.

Prakhar Jain, managing director of the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority, told The Hindu that people in low-lying areas and kutcha (makeshift) houses in coastal districts from Bapatla to Vizianagaram would be moved to shelters. The state has 12 State Disaster Response Force and seven National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) units and has asked for three more NDRF units, the newspaper reported. Red alerts for heavy rain have been issued for several coastal Andhra Pradesh districts for 27 and 28 October, The Hindu reported.

In neighbouring Odisha, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi told officials to aim for zero casualties, India Today reported. The state has closed schools and colleges in Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput and Malkangiri districts on 28 and 29 October, where the IMD has a red warning for rainfall above 20 cm, and has deployed about 60 state rapid-response teams, 17 NDRF teams and 225 fire service teams. Cyclone warning signals were raised at nine ports in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, including Chennai.

Forecasts were as of the IMD’s bulletins on Sunday; later bulletins replace them.