AMARAVATI (The Thursday Times) — India’s Andhra Pradesh is bracing for a second cyclone in a week, with the India Meteorological Department forecasting that a new storm will cross its coast on Monday, November 2, less than a week after Cyclone Arnab killed at least seven people in the state.
A well-marked low-pressure area formed on Saturday over the southeast Bay of Bengal near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and was expected to strengthen into a depression by Saturday evening and a cyclonic storm by Sunday, the IMD said in a special bulletin. If it forms, it will be named Murasu, a name proposed by India meaning “drum” in Tamil.
Heavy rain is forecast for coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam as the storm approaches, and for Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal until November 5. The IMD warned of rough seas along the Andhra coast, with winds of 30 to 40 kilometres per hour gusting to 50.
The new storm threatens areas still recovering from Cyclone Arnab, which tore through the coast last week, damaging nearly 71,000 hectares of paddy and forcing tens of thousands of people into relief camps in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
In neighbouring Odisha, the aftermath of Arnab is still unfolding. At least 12 people are missing after a rain-triggered landslide struck the hilltop hamlet of Gidipabali in Ganjam district on Friday, Odisha’s special relief commissioner Rajesh Patil said, with more than 170 rescuers searching for them. Three members of one family, including a nine-month-old baby, were killed in a separate landslide in Kandhamal district, taking the state’s rain-related death toll to four. Nearly 40,000 people remain in 367 relief camps in Ganjam.
