Odisha Moves 8,082 as Unnamed Depression Feeds Andhra

A deep depression hit the Andhra coast near Kalingapatnam overnight 23-24 September with 55-65 kmph winds, never becoming Cyclone Arnab. Odisha had evacuated 8,082 people by noon on 24 September.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu told officials to run that rain into tanks and reservoirs after a 42% monsoon shortfall. South Odisha was counting landslides, blocked roads and 73 damaged houses from the same system.

The Name Arnab Was Never Used

India Meteorological Department bulletins kept the system in the deep-depression class through landfall. A cyclonic storm is the intensity at which a North Indian Ocean system receives a name. This one stayed below that line, so Arnab, the next unused name on the WMO/ESCAP list and a Bangladesh entry that means ocean, was not assigned.

Searches still ran on the unused name. That habit outran the official category and left a cyclone label on a storm the Met office never named.

IMD scientist Ashim Mitra, posting in a personal capacity on 23 September, said the centre would “cross the North Andhra Pradesh and adjoining South Odisha coasts between Visakhapatnam and Gopalpur, close to southwest of Kalingapatnam, within the next 3-4 hours.” The Hyderabad Meteorological Centre later recorded the crossing close to southwest of Kalingapatnam between 2300 IST on 23 September and 0100 IST on 24 September, as a deep depression with maximum sustained winds of 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph.

The Deep Depression over north Andhra Pradesh coast, moved slowly west-northwestwards with a speed of 03 kmph during past 06 hours and crossed the coast closed to southwest of Kalingapatnam during 2300 Hrs IST of 23rd and 0100 Hrs IST of today, the 24th September 2026, as a Deep Depression with maximum sustained wind speed of 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph.

India Meteorological Department, Meteorological Centre Hyderabad, inference dated 24 September 2026

The system had been tracked as BOB 06 from 21 September. After the coast, it drifted north-northwest over Koraput country and into south Chhattisgarh, still throwing rain on hills that had already been wet for two days.

HOW BOB 06 MOVED ASHORE

1. 21 September 2026: IMD classifies a depression over the northwest Bay of Bengal as BOB 06.
2. 22 September 2026: The system intensifies into a deep depression over the west-central and adjoining northwest Bay.
3. 23 September 2026, 2330 IST: Centre lies about 30 km west-southwest of Kalingapatnam; the front sector is already over land.
4. 23 September, 2300 IST to 24 September, 0100 IST: Landfall close to southwest of Kalingapatnam, winds 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph.
5. 24 September 2026, 0530 IST: Centre about 50 km west of Kalingapatnam, 80 km north-northeast of Visakhapatnam and 170 km southwest of Gopalpur.
6. 24 September 2026, 2330 IST: Centre over south Odisha and adjoining south Chhattisgarh near 19.7°N, 82.7°E, about 60 km west-southwest of Bhawanipatna, still a deep depression.
7. 25 September 2026, 0530 IST: System weakens into a Depression close to Nuapada, moving north-northwest at 15 kmph.

IMD’s own Friday morning post put the centre near latitude 20.5°N and longitude 82.5°E, about 90 km west-northwest of Titlagarh and 120 km southeast of Raipur, and said it would hold Depression strength for about 12 hours before easing into a well-marked low.

The Deep Depression over south Odisha & adjoining south Chhattisgarh, moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 15 kmph during past 06 hours, weakened into a Depression and lay centered at 0530 hrs IST of today, 25th September 2026 over the south interior Odisha & adjoining… pic.twitter.com/wlHbA0CSDU

— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) September 25, 2026

8,082 People Leave South Odisha Villages

Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said the rains had hit six districts: Ganjam, Gajapati, Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada and Nabarangpur. Collectors were told to keep shifting people from waterlogged ground. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had set a “zero casualty” line, and Pujari said there was no injury or death from this spell by Thursday afternoon.

“We have evacuated 8,082 people by noon, and the process is continuing,” Pujari said on 24 September. He put the number of people affected at 8,205. The evacuated were housed in 203 relief camps. The government had reports of 73 houses damaged.

ODISHA TALLY BY THURSDAY NOON

• People moved: 8,082 residents shifted from low ground and landslide slopes, with the operation still open.
• People affected: 8,205 residents counted across the six southern and south-western districts.
• Camps and houses: 203 relief camps open, and 73 houses reported damaged.
• Blocks hit: 37 blocks, plus five urban local bodies, under the weather system.

Panchayati Raj Minister Rabi Narayan Naik went to Koraput. Fisheries Minister Gokulananda Mallik went to Gajapati. As more waterlogging reports came in, Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena was sent to Ganjam and School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond to Nabarangpur. Four senior officers followed them. The ruling BJP told MLAs from the vulnerable seats to be in their areas.

The ground record was local and ugly rather than statewide. A large tree fell on National Highway-26 in Koraput town and crushed a car, briefly cutting the Visakhapatnam and Raipur runs. Stormwater entered villages in Gualigumuda and Chandili of Kotpad block, and about 160 people were moved. Gajapati had already shifted around 1,300 people after more than 36 hours of rain, with boulders cutting Bastriguda from R. Udayagiri. Train running between Rayagada and Koraput was hit. A bridge in Nabarangpur’s Tentulikhunti block was affected, and water overflowed the national highway at three points in Malkangiri.

IMD sources put Odisha’s 24-hour average at 70 mm to 8.30 am on 24 September, with Semiliguda in Koraput highest at 193.9 mm. Chitrakonda recorded 168.8 mm and Tangi in Khordha 142 mm. At least 17 places in the state took more than 100 mm in that window. School holidays, including in Khurda, ran for two days. They did not fall evenly: technical institutes stayed open in some places while school students were sent home.

Naidu Orders a Statewide Reservoir Fill

Naidu’s instruction, issued at a review with collectors, was to use the inflows to fill reservoirs, tanks and minor sources, with pumps and mobile lifting gear where gravity would not do the work. He asked for Godavari water to put 24 TMC into Yeleru and for the Polavaram Left Canal to feed water bodies as far as Anakapalli. Officials told him groundwater had risen after three days of rain, and about 11,000 cusecs were arriving at Prakasam Barrage from the Munneru and other catchments.

Heavy rain had already been logged in 16 districts, including Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, Manyam, Kakinada, the Godavari belt, Eluru, Krishna and NTR. Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority managing director Prakhar Jain said more than 100 mm had fallen at 80 locations in an earlier 24-hour slice, with Palasa in Srikakulam among the first big totals at 141 mm. Vijayawada saw a second day of school holidays as low ground went under. NDRF and SDRF teams were out in the north coastal belt.

The storage numbers on 24 September show why Amaravati treated the rain as a harvest. Major reservoirs held 552.81 TMC against 1,106.36 TMC of capacity, about 50% full. That half-empty network is a flood cushion. It is also a drought ledger that this storm only partly writes down.

ANDHRA RESERVOIR STORAGE ON 24 SEPTEMBER

Even on the Godavari, a lot of the new water was not staying. The Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram recorded 137,099 cusecs in and the same volume out, with no change in storage, the incoming flow passed downstream. Donkarayi also matched 3,485 cusecs in and out. The fill Naidu ordered is a race against water that is already heading to sea.

The Deficit That Made the Rain Look Like Relief

IMD figures for 1 June to 16 September put Andhra Pradesh at 255.3 mm against a normal of 442.3 mm, a 42% shortfall, tied with Arunachal Pradesh as the third-worst in the country after Meghalaya at 59% and Manipur at 43%. Among southern peninsula states, Andhra’s gap was the steepest. Department experts said it was only the second time since 1904, a drought year with a 44.19% shortfall, that the state had seen a gap this large.

August was the sour month. The state took 65.4 mm against a normal of 144.3 mm, a 55% shortfall, and ten of 28 districts were in the large-deficient class. Farmers had already cut paddy. Area sown this kharif fell from 13.91 lakh hectares last season to 12.01 lakh hectares, a drop of 1.90 lakh hectares. North coastal districts struggled to start on time. Nellore Masuri country felt falling levels in Somasila and Kandaleru.

Visakhapatnam Cyclone Warning Centre director P.L.N. Murthy, speaking on 20 September before landfall, said the incoming system “might bring down the rainfall deficit by at least 20 per cent” if the forecast held. European and U.S. models had even hinted at a distorted eye-like circulation. IMD never took the system up to a cyclone. The rain still came, just as a deep depression, and it fell hardest on the north coast and the Odisha hills, not on the dry interior that had waited longest.

A live district-wise monsoon rainfall for Andhra Pradesh dashboard, and the IMD Pune monsoon rainfall departure table, both show how wide the seasonal hole still is once you leave the north-coast belt that took this storm.

Why the Water Misses Rayalaseema

Rayalaseema and the Pennar basin are the hole the Kalingapatnam landfall does not fill. Combined Rayalaseema storage on 24 September was 171.62 TMC against 372.37 TMC. Somasila held 16.50 TMC of 78 TMC, with 61.50 TMC of room still empty. Kandaleru held 17.27 TMC of 68.03 TMC, with 50.76 TMC unfilled. Those are irrigation tanks for Nellore and the southern districts, sitting hundreds of kilometres from the landfall strip between Kalingapatnam and Polaki.

The storm’s rain field was a north-coast and south-Odisha event. Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and the Godavari catchments took the hits. Officials expected heavy inflows at Sabari, Indravati, Yeleru, Tandava, Yerrakalva, Pampa and Meghadrigadda, and they flagged flood-warning levels at Gotta, Bhadrachalam, Dowleswaram and Kunta. That is the Godavari and north-coast map. It is not the Pennar map.

Inter-basin transfers, motors on the Polavaram Left Canal, and a 24 TMC shove into Yeleru are the state’s attempt to drag some of this water sideways. Until those lifts actually run, Rayalaseema’s empty storage is a fact the deep depression does not change. The half-full statewide figure hides that split: a wet Godavari passing 137,099 cusecs straight through Cotton Barrage, and a Pennar system still sitting on roughly a fifth to a quarter of its own capacity.

Baitarani and Jalka Slip Over the Marks

By the morning of 25 September the rain had moved with the centre, into interior Odisha, and several rivers were no longer a forecast. Water resources readings put the Baitarani at Akhuapada in Bhadrak at 18.35 metres, 0.02 metres over a danger level of 18.33 metres. Dhamnagar and Bhandaripokhari were put on flood alert. The Jalka at Mathani was at 6.76 metres against a danger level of 6.50 metres.

RIVER GAUGES ON 25 SEPTEMBER

• Baitarani at Akhuapada: 18.35 metres against a danger level of 18.33 metres, with alerts in Dhamnagar and Bhandaripokhari.
• Jalka at Mathani: 6.76 metres against a danger level of 6.50 metres.
• Rushikulya at Janibili Anicut: 13 feet 4 inches overnight against a 14-foot danger level, with water already in low parts of Aska, where the river stood at 4 feet against 6 feet 7 inches.

Ganjam was watching the Rushikulya, Badanadi, Baghua and Ghodahada together. Water entered the Seragada Kumarapani School premises and waterlogged the Seragada Community Health Centre. Gajapati and Ganjam teams kept a watch on the Vansadhara and Rushikulya through Thursday. The inland track toward Nuapada, Kalahandi and Balangir meant the rain did not switch off when the label dropped from deep depression to Depression. Nabarangpur, already on a red warning for extremely heavy rain, had been wet for two straight days.

A national bulletin issued at 0245 hours IST on 25 September, signed by Scientist E Dr. Suprit Kumar, still warned of heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places over interior Odisha on 25 September and heavy rain at isolated places on 26 September. Flash-flood guidance through 2330 IST on 25 September covered watersheds in Koraput, Malkangiri, Nawarangpur, Kalahandi, Puri, Khurda and a long list of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, north coastal Andhra and Telangana districts. Localised landslides, mudslides and landslips in hilly areas were in the impact list, which is the sentence south Odisha had already lived through.

Fishermen Face a Morning Ban on the Bay

At sea the system was already fading, which is why the unused name will stay unused. Squally winds of 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph were listed over the west-central and adjoining northwest Bay and along the south Odisha-north Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts until the morning of 25 September, then a gradual drop. Over south Odisha, south Chhattisgarh and north Andhra coastal districts, 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph was to ease to 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph by noon on 25 September. Fishermen were told not to go into the west-central and adjoining northwest and southwest Bay, or along the Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal coasts, until that Friday morning. Odisha ports had been holding Local Cautionary Signal No. III.

Coastal weather still showed up in the photographs: strong winds and high tides at Puri, rough to very rough seas along the north Andhra-Odisha-West Bengal strip. Small ships, trawlers and boats were in the impact list, along with broken branches, flying loose objects, and partial damage to kutcha houses. Puri’s surf and Koraput’s fallen tree are the same storm in two registers, one marine and one hill.

The forecast track takes the Depression north-northwest and down to a well-marked low around 26 September. Interior Odisha still had heavy rain on the cards for 25 and 26 September. Somasila still held 16.50 TMC of 78 TMC. Arnab is still the next name on the list, waiting for a storm that actually reaches cyclonic strength.