India News | Cyclone Arnab Weakens into Depression over Chhattisgarh, Triggers Heavy Rainfall in Odisha; Rescue Ops Underway: Officials
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The remnant of Cyclone Arnab, which crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast, has weakened into a depression and is currently centred over Chhattisgarh, triggering widespread and intense precipitation across several states, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.The remnant of Cyclone Arnab, which crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast, has weakened into a depression and is currently centred over Chhattisgarh, triggering widespread and intense precipitation across several states, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
New Delhi [India], October 29 (ANI): The remnant of Cyclone Arnab, which crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast, has weakened into a depression and is currently centred over Chhattisgarh, triggering widespread and intense precipitation across several states, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Detailing the post-cyclone trajectory and its weather impact, IMD Director General M Mohapatra said that northern Andhra Pradesh and Odisha witnessed extremely heavy downpours over the past 24 hours, with southern Odisha recording exceptional rainfall up to 55 centimetres.
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"The cyclone that crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast has moved gradually northward while weakening; as of this morning, it is centred over Chhattisgarh as a depression. Under its influence, northern Andhra Pradesh and Odisha have experienced extremely heavy rainfall over the past 24 hours—with Odisha, in particular, seeing exceptional rainfall, reaching a maximum of 55 centimetres in the southern part of the state," Mohapatra told ANI.
He noted that the system will continue to bring heavy precipitation across eastern and central India over the next two days.
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"Consequently, heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected today in the eastern parts of Chhattisgarh and the western parts of Odisha; in isolated areas, there could even be extremely heavy rainfall, exceeding 20 centimetres. Furthermore, rain is expected today and tomorrow across Jharkhand, Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, eastern Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Sikkim," Mohapatra added.
The IMD chief also pointed out weather alerts across northern and northeastern regions, stating, "An orange alert has been issued for Delhi today. We are expecting light to moderate rainfall; for various parts of Northeast India, the forecast is marked with yellow to orange colour codes."
Further, Mohanty stated that the system is moving in a north-westerly direction and is likely to further degenerate into a well-marked low-pressure area by the evening.
"The remnant of the extremely severe Arnab, now in depression, is currently lying over southern Chhattisgarh and the adjacent southern Odisha. Over the past six hours, it has moved in a north-westerly direction at a speed of 18 kilometres per hour... By this evening, it is expected to develop into a 'well-marked low-pressure area' over northern Chhattisgarh and the adjoining north-eastern and north-western parts of Odisha," Mohanty said.
She further issued warnings for several districts of Odisha while also flagging another emerging weather system in the Bay of Bengal region.
"Consequently, heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected in the Sundargarh and Bargarh districts, with the possibility of extremely heavy rainfall in one or two locations. An 'orange alert' for very heavy rainfall has been issued for Keonjhar, Deogarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, and Mayurbhanj. Meanwhile, a 'yellow alert' has been issued for Ganjam, Gajapati, Balasore... Another low-pressure area is likely to form over the southern Andaman Sea and its surrounding regions," Mohanty said.
Meanwhile, ground-level relief and evacuation measures have been scaled up across flood-hit belts in Odisha, particularly in the Ganjam district.
Odisha Director General of Police (DGP) Vinaytosh Mishra told ANI that despite moderate wind speeds, excessive rainfall at the tail end of the monsoon season caused widespread waterlogging in low-lying pockets.
"While the wind speeds were not particularly high, there has been significant rainfall. Given that we are at the end of the monsoon season, this has led to flooding in several areas, especially in the Ganjam district. Anticipating this, we had deployed 18 ODRAF teams across six districts in Odisha, fully equipped with boats and other necessary gear. Our personnel immediately began rescuing people from low-lying, flooded areas using boats. Our rescue and relief distribution teams are working in close coordination," DGP Mishra said.
Mishra assured that emergency response personnel will remain on the ground until the situation fully stabilises.
"Personnel from the fire services, ODRAF, and NDRF are all actively engaged in rescue operations in the affected low-lying areas... Our teams remain on high alert and will continue to be so until the threat has completely passed. The situation will not return to normal immediately, and they will remain at ground zero and continue to assist people," DGP Mishra added.
Cyclone Arnab completed its landfall in Andhra Pradesh on October 28 between 2 and 4 am. (ANI)
(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)