Cyclones do not end at the coast, and Arnab is proving it. The storm crossed the Andhra coast on October 28, its coastal winds eased, and attention turned to damage totals and power restoration. But the inland phase, rivers rising hours after the rain stops, in communities that were never in the surge path, has kept the emergency going, particularly in Odisha, where the situation in Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts is only gradually improving as rain eases and floodwaters recede. The science of that lag, between rainfall and river response, is the reason inland warnings matter as much as coastal ones.
The mechanism is straightforward and often misunderstood. Heavy rain falls on catchments inland, water collects in rivers over hours, and river levels peak after the storm has moved on, sometimes in places that experienced only moderate wind. The India Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rainfall at isolated places over Arunachal Pradesh, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Mahe, and thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds across a swathe of states including Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal, which means the inland system is still being fed by new rain even as coastal districts begin repairs. A community that was safe at landfall can therefore become a flood risk a day later, and people who have returned home may assume the danger has passed when it has only moved.
The Gidipabali landslide search
The human cost of the inland phase is starkest at Gidipabali in Bhanjanagar, Ganjam district, where a major landslide has left 12 people missing, according to reports, with four people reported dead in rain related incidents in the wider region. Rescue operations remain under way in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, and the landslide search illustrates why inland risk is harder to manage than coastal risk: a surge can be evacuated from, because its path is predictable, while a landslide on a saturated slope can strike with little warning, in a place that was not evacuated because it was not in the surge zone. The search for the missing is therefore not only a rescue operation but a test of whether inland hazard mapping keeps pace with rainfall forecasting.
Telecom and power restoration data show the inland lag in infrastructure too. Network availability in Andhra Pradesh has reached 99.18 percent, but Odisha’s hardest hit districts are recovering more slowly, as floodwaters recede and providers restore sites progressively. The telecom restoration effort in Odisha districts is gradually improving as rain eases, and that gradual improvement, rather than a sudden return to normal, is the pattern of inland recovery: water must fall before roads can be cleared, roads must be cleared before poles can be replaced, and poles must be replaced before households can return.
What the next warning grid must cover
Arnab will be studied for its warning grid as much as for its winds. Early alerts moved more than 100,000 people before landfall, and the coastal toll was kept low, but the inland phase shows the grid must cover river catchments as well as coasts, and must reach people who have already returned home. That means warnings tied to river levels, not only to storm position, and messages that explain why a place safe yesterday may flood today. The next alert system must also account for landslides on saturated slopes, where rainfall totals matter more than wind speeds.
For residents inland, the practical advice remains unchanged even as the storm fades from headlines: watch river levels, heed local flood warnings, avoid crossing flooded roads, and do not assume that clear skies mean safe rivers. The storm’s winds have passed. Its water has not finished moving yet, and the rivers will decide when the Arnab emergency truly ends.
