People along the south of Andhra Pradesh’s coastline spent a sleepless night as Severe Cyclonic Storm Murasu came ashore close to the town of Ongole. According to India’s national weather service, the eye moved over land on Tuesday at some point after half past three and before half past five in the morning, bringing sustained winds of 100 to 110 km/h and gusts of up to 120 km/h.
Daylight revealed a long list of damage. Thousands of trees and hundreds of power poles were brought down, thatched homes and fishing boats were battered, standing crops were flattened or flooded, and drivers were stuck on highways in blinding rain. Kothapatnam, on the coast near Ongole, logged more than 160 millimetres of rain in just seven hours. Trains between Vijayawada, Ongole and Gudur were stopped or slowed, with seven trains cancelled and four rerouted.
Forecasters say Murasu should lose strength through the day and be no more than a strong low by around midnight, but they are not sounding the all-clear. Six districts, among them Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam, remain under the highest warning level because isolated cloudbursts are still possible, and the wet spell is forecast to drag on for several more days. The state’s weather director, K. Nagaratna, told fishermen to stay ashore until Wednesday.
It is the second cyclone to hit the state in quick succession. The state’s leader, N. Chandrababu Naidu, told India’s interior minister Amit Shah about losses from both Arnab and Murasu, and Shah promised central support, with national and state disaster teams already deployed. Mindful that several people died from fallen live wires after Arnab, Naidu asked officials to keep residents indoors until roads are cleared.
The storm’s reach extends beyond Andhra Pradesh. Neighbouring Odisha has moved more than 160,000 people out of landslide-prone hill areas, while northern Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are getting heavy rain and rough seas.
