Severe Cyclonic Storm Murasu battered the south Andhra Pradesh coast on Tuesday, killing at least two people, flattening standing crops across more than 52,000 hectares and forcing thousands of residents into relief camps, before weakening rapidly as it moved inland.

The storm crossed the coast between Nellore and Narsapur, close to Ongole in Prakasam district, between 3:30 am and 5:30 am on November 3, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, with sustained winds of 100 to 110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph. It was the second cyclone to strike Andhra Pradesh in about a week, after Cyclone Arnab hit further north near Kakinada in late October.

Two deaths, thousands in shelters

Both deaths were reported in Bapatla district, where a 25-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman died in separate building collapses, the state's disaster management authority said. More than 12,000 people were sheltering in relief centres across Guntur, Bapatla and Palnadu, the three worst-affected districts, according to the authority's managing director, Prakhar Jain.

The rain was intense as well as the wind. A gauge at Konanki in Bapatla district recorded 182.25 mm in five and a half hours, the highest in the state, and eighteen gauges across five districts passed 100 mm. Preliminary losses have been put at Rs 3.44 billion, with standing crops destroyed across 52,459 hectares, though officials cautioned that the damage assessment is still under way.

Travel disrupted across the region

The storm threw transport into disarray before it even came ashore. Chennai airport reported 11 flight cancellations on Monday, with services to Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, Kadapa and Tiruchirappalli among those affected. The South Coast Railway temporarily suspended train movement along the Vijayawada-Ongole-Gudur section after gale-force winds were recorded near Karavadi station, and at least seven trains were diverted as a precaution, including the Kerala Express and the Bengaluru-Hatia Express.

The IMD had warned of a storm surge of about 1.5 to 2 metres above the normal tide in low-lying coastal areas of Bapatla, Krishna and Prakasam districts, and wind warnings covered nine coastal districts in all, from Nellore to West Godavari.

Weakening inland

By 8:30 pm on Tuesday, Murasu had weakened into a deep depression centred about 70 km west-southwest of Vijayawada, moving north-northwest at 7 kmph with sustained winds of 55 to 65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph, the IMD said. Heavy rain was expected to continue over parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as the system moved inland, with officials urging residents in low-lying areas to remain cautious until the system dissipates.

For coastal Andhra Pradesh, the back-to-back cyclones have made for a punishing end to October and start of November — two landfalls in days, and a long clean-up ahead for farming communities whose harvests bore the brunt.