Second cyclone in a week: Murasu to cross between Nellore and Narsapur overnight Monday; 15,128 power poles at risk after Arnab's ₹4,600 crore hit

The depression over the Bay of Bengal became Cyclone Murasu on Sunday. At 2:30 PM it was 550 km from Nellore and 560 km from Machilipatnam, moving at 27 km/h, IMD said in its 5:36 PM bulletin. It is expected to become a severe cyclonic storm by Monday morning.

IMD warnings

• Landfall: between Nellore and Narsapur, from 11:30 PM on November 2 to 4 AM on November 3. The CM's office says near Bapatla.
• Winds of 100–110 km/h, gusting to 120. A storm surge of about 1 metre may flood low-lying areas, mainly in Bapatla, Krishna and Prakasam.
• Red alert on November 2 for Krishna, Guntur, Bapatla, Prakasam and Nellore.
• Fishermen must stay ashore from the morning of November 2 to the afternoon of November 4.
• Telangana: isolated extremely heavy rain on November 3, winds of 70–80 km/h gusting to 90. Heavy rain warning for Khammam, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Mahabubabad, Suryapet, Nalgonda and Yadadri Bhuvanagiri.

The economic cost

Cyclone Arnab, which crossed near Narsapur on October 28, killed seven people. The CM put the preliminary loss at ₹4,600 crore: 3.45 lakh farmers in 14 districts, 2.24 lakh hectares of crops and over 15,000 power poles hit. Officials now estimate Murasu could damage 15,128 poles across 12 districts, bring extremely heavy rain to 20 mandals (nine in Eluru), and push about 32,500 cusecs into the Budameru on November 3.

CM Chandrababu Naidu cancelled his Monday trip to Delhi, ordered cyclone bulletins every four hours, and told telecom operators to prevent network outages.