Another severe storm has revealed the recent strides India has made in preparing for such tempests, while also laying bare the long road ahead. Cyclone Arnab, which made landfall in Andhra Pradesh early Wednesday with sustained wind speeds of 125-135 km per hour, is expected to bring extremely heavy rain to Odisha and Chhattisgarh, too. Preliminary reports estimate at least five deaths in Andhra Pradesh, crop damage over 2.24 lakh hectares and collapse of more than 15,000 electricity poles. With the cyclone moving northwards, Odisha is braced for impact, having evacuated almost 50,000 people to safer places.
Over the past 12 years, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha have faced the severe cyclones Hudhud, Titli, Phethai and Michaung. In 2014, Hudhud claimed 49 lives and caused damages of over ₹21,900 crore. Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh’s financial capital, witnessed unprecedented destruction and took 2-3 weeks to return to normalcy. It exposed how ill-equipped the state’s urban infrastructure was to withstand storms of such severity.
Compared to this sorry past, the states and the Centre have both improved their coordination and execution of relief efforts. Today, they use sharper technology to anticipate the impact, issue real-time alerts to reach more people and evacuate larger groups to safety. In the aftermath, fallen trees are cleared to restore transport and power links faster than earlier. The governments have also become more liberal in providing assistance, although its disbursal remains troublingly uneven. While the loss of life in recent cyclones has remained low, crop and property damage continues to run into thousands of crores of rupees.
Despite improved preparedness, Andhra Pradesh lags in long-term mitigation efforts. Unlike neighbouring Odisha, which has followed global standards in cyclone management, Andhra Pradesh still has substantial room for improvement. Most deaths in the state are caused by collapsed mud walls and snapped power cables in a region witnessing more frequent cyclones.
Although records show increasing allocation of permanent housing support, the continuing loss of lives shows that many poor residents in the affected areas are yet to receive the benefits. Even major cities like Visakhapatnam and Kakinada, both covered under the Smart Cities Mission, lack adequate underground cabling. We must prioritise long-term mitigation measures along the east coast at a time climate change promises many more tropical tempests.
