Cyclone Arnab Aftermath Explained: 546 mm Rain, Flooded Villages in Ganjam, and the Coast Guard Airlift
Key Takeaways
- Patrapur in Ganjam recorded 546 mm of rain in 24 hours ending 29 October morning, with Sorada at 503 mm — among the highest rainfall ever recorded in south Odisha.
- Around 300 villages in Ganjam were flooded and about 70 completely marooned, with 42,500 people affected in Ganjam and 20,000 in Gajapati.
- Nearly 59,028 people were evacuated across nine Odisha districts by 313 NDRF, ODRAF and Fire Services teams.
- An Indian Coast Guard helicopter began airlifting stranded residents from Dharakote block on 29 October afternoon, with 2,328 people identified for airlift.
- All educational institutions in Ganjam and Gajapati were ordered closed until 31 October 2026, and NH-326 near Berhampur was washed away.
What happened
Two days after Cyclone Arnab made landfall on the Andhra Pradesh-Yanam coast on 28 October 2026, its heaviest damage was unfolding not at the coast but inland, in southern Odisha. Extremely heavy rain over 28 and 29 October pushed rivers over their danger marks, flooded hundreds of villages in Ganjam and Gajapati districts, washed away stretches of highway, and forced the Odisha government to call in an Indian Coast Guard helicopter to airlift people from villages that road-based rescue teams could not reach.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the rainfall in south Odisha in the 24 hours ending at 8:30 am on 29 October was among the highest ever recorded in the region. Patrapur in Ganjam district recorded 546 mm of rain in that period — more than half a metre of water falling on one place in a single day. Sorada, also in Ganjam, recorded 503 mm. G. Udayagiri in Kandhamal recorded 462 mm, Mahendragarh in Gajapati 458 mm, Sanakhemundi in Ganjam 388 mm and Chikiti in Ganjam 309 mm. To put that in perspective, several of these places received in one day roughly as much rain as they would normally expect over a much longer stretch of the monsoon season. Odisha's Chief Secretary Anu Garg said the rainfall in Ganjam and Gajapati over the past few days was comparable to what the region sometimes receives over an entire year.
By the morning of 29 October, the IMD had downgraded Arnab to a depression over south Chhattisgarh and adjoining south Odisha, with sustained winds of 45 to 55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph. The wind was no longer the main threat. The water was.
Why the flooding was so severe
Cyclones cause damage in two distinct phases, and Arnab is a textbook example of why the second phase can be worse than the first. At landfall, the headline danger is wind speed — Arnab crossed the coast with winds of around 135 kmph. But as the storm moved inland and weakened, it kept dumping enormous quantities of rain over the same districts for days. Southern Odisha's hilly terrain in Gajapati and Kandhamal made things worse: torrents of rainwater rushed downhill into low-lying areas, rivers swelled rapidly, and the ground, already saturated, could absorb almost nothing more.
The two rivers at the centre of the crisis were the Rushikulya and the Vansadhara. On 29 October afternoon, the Vansadhara at Gunupur in Rayagada district stood at 55.37 metres against a danger level of 54.60 metres, and it was still rising. The Rushikulya at Purushottampur in Ganjam stood at 19.20 metres against a danger level of 16.84 metres. When a river flows more than two metres above its danger mark through a densely settled coastal plain, flooding of nearby towns and villages is not a risk — it is a certainty.
The towns and villages of Sorada, Purushottampur, Patrapur, Kabisuryanagar and Sanakhemundi in Ganjam faced the worst of the Rushikulya's flooding. In Gajapati, the same rain triggered landslides: hilly roads and bridges were swept away, and massive rock boulders rolled down from Kalinga Ghat onto the arterial road connecting Ganjam and Kandhamal districts, cutting off vehicle movement. A stretch of National Highway 326 connecting Berhampur with Mohana was washed away by floodwaters, and in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh's Srikakulam district, a railway bridge was submerged, halting trains on both sides.
The rescue operation
The scale of the evacuation was large. By the night of 29 October, the Odisha government said 59,028 people had been evacuated to safety across nine districts, including 11,882 from Ganjam alone. The evacuated included 3,001 pregnant women, who were moved as a precaution. In Ganjam district alone, around 42,500 people were affected by the floods, and in Gajapati around 20,000.
A total of 313 disaster-response teams were deployed across the affected districts: nine teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), 60 teams of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and 244 Fire Services teams. Ganjam received the heaviest deployment, with 45 ODRAF teams and seven NDRF teams, followed by Gajapati with 12 ODRAF teams and one NDRF team. Seven other districts — Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada and Kandhamal — were also affected.
But in parts of Ganjam, boats and road teams simply could not get through. Around 300 villages in the district were affected by floods, and about 70 of them were completely marooned — cut off by water on all sides. That is why the state government coordinated with the Union Home Ministry to arrange helicopter support. An Indian Coast Guard helicopter completed its first rescue sortie on the afternoon of 29 October, airlifting people from Dharakote block, and further sorties followed. Officials said 2,328 people were being airlifted from the 70 cut-off villages, with 120 identified for the first phase. Continued rain and low cloud cover threatened to delay flights, which is why officials said they were hoping for the rain to ease so rescue teams could reach everyone still stranded.
Schools closed, normal life disrupted
The disruption extended well beyond the flooded villages. The district administrations of Ganjam and Gajapati ordered all educational institutions — anganwadi centres, schools, degree colleges, technical institutions and university departments — to remain closed until 31 October 2026. Ganjam's order, issued by the Collector on 29 October, continued earlier closure orders from 26 October. In Gajapati, schools that had been shut through 29 October had their closure extended by two more days. The closure also pushed back the deadline for the third phase of the diploma in elementary education (CT) admission process by two days.
The weather system's reach extended further. In Jharkhand, the IMD issued orange and yellow alerts across several districts, and districts including Ranchi, East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and Simdega ordered school closures on 28 and 29 October, with closures continuing through Friday 30 October in some places. In Sundargarh district of Odisha, all schools were ordered shut on 30 October as a precaution. In Uttar Pradesh, a separate reason kept schools shut: all schools in 60 districts were closed up to class 12 until 30 October for the UPSSSC PET 2026 examination. There was no nationwide school holiday — closures depended on district orders and local conditions, and parents were advised to check with their children's schools rather than assume a holiday.
What happens next
The immediate priority is reaching the marooned villages and restoring road and rail links. Once floodwaters recede, the state faces the longer task of repairing washed-away highways, damaged bridges and breached embankments, and assessing crop and housing damage for compensation. The episode is also a reminder of a pattern India has seen repeatedly with Bay of Bengal cyclones: the landfall gets the headlines, but the inland rainfall that follows can cause the worst flooding, sometimes hundreds of kilometres from the coast and days after the storm has weakened.
For residents of the affected districts, the practical advice from officials remained simple: stay away from flooded roads, canals and low-lying areas, do not attempt to cross swollen rivers, follow district administration announcements on when schools and institutions reopen, and call local emergency numbers if help is needed. The IMD's forecasts and the state government's relief updates remain the authoritative sources as the situation evolves.
Conclusion
Cyclone Arnab's aftermath in Odisha shows how a storm's most destructive chapter can begin after landfall. A single day of 546 mm rain in Patrapur, rivers flowing metres above their danger marks, around 300 flooded villages in one district, nearly 59,000 people evacuated across nine districts, and a Coast Guard helicopter called in because roads no longer existed — that is the scale of what followed the cyclone inland. The rescue operation, the extended school closures and the washed-out highways will take days to resolve, and the recovery longer still. What the episode underlines is the importance of treating a cyclone warning as a rainfall and flooding warning too, not just a wind warning, especially for districts far from the coast.