KAKINADA: Indian authorities ordered nearly 100,000 people to evacuate homes in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, ahead of a severe cyclone the national weather office expects to make landfall on Wednesday.

Neighbouring Nepal and Sri Lanka have also issued weather warnings. Cyclone Arnab is forecast to hit the Andhra Pradesh coast in the country’s southeast as a “very severe cyclonic storm”, with gusts of up to 150 kilometres per hour early on Wednesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement.

“Due to faster movement, the landfall of cyclone is expected early. It is likely to make landfall during early hours (2-4 am) of 28th October,” the IMD said. Torrential rain lashed the coast in the port city of Kakinada as heavy waves crashed ashore.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Kotesh Kumar, 35, said, adding that the government warned people to stock up on groceries. “There was a cyclone here three years ago, but the water didn’t rise this much.” Cyclones, called hurricanes in the North Atlantic and typhoons in the Pacific, are a regular menace in the Bay of Bengal and northern Indian Ocean.

The storm season, however, has been turbocharged by the El Nino weather phenomenon that has caused unprecedented warming. Neighbouring Sri Lanka, meanwhile, closed schools with warnings of torrential rain, with the island’s Department of Meteorology warning storms could trigger flash floods and mudslides.

The military has been placed on alert, Colombo’s Disaster Management Centre said. Indian media reported that as many as 50,000 people have been told to move to safe areas in Andhra Pradesh, and 48,000 in Odisha.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2026