While Andhra Pradesh reports telecom availability at 99.18 percent and a power restoration target of Saturday evening, Odisha’s recovery from Cyclone Arnab is moving more slowly, and the difference deserves attention. The situation in Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts, named by the Department of Telecommunications as the hardest hit in Odisha, is gradually improving as rain eases and floodwaters recede, with telecom providers restoring sites progressively. Gradually is the operative word: Odisha’s damage came less from the coastal surge and more from rain, flooding and landslides inland, and those harms recede on water’s timetable, not on a repair crew’s.
The contrast with Andhra Pradesh is instructive. Andhra Pradesh took the coastal strike, with more than 15,000 poles uprooted and a preliminary damage estimate of 4,600 crore rupees, but its flat coastal districts allow faster access for repair crews once rain stops. Odisha’s affected districts include hilly terrain where landslides block roads, where floodwaters linger in valleys, and where a single blocked road can isolate a community that needs both relief and repair. The recovery sequence is therefore longer: water must fall, roads must be cleared, sites must be reached, and only then can power and telecom be restored in full.
The landslide search at Gidipabali
The human focus of Odisha’s recovery is at Gidipabali in Bhanjanagar, Ganjam district, where a major landslide has left 12 people missing, according to reports, with four people reported dead in rain related incidents in the wider region. Rescue operations remain under way, and the search illustrates the particular cruelty of landslide disasters: unlike a flood, which gives hours of warning as rivers rise, a landslide on saturated ground can strike suddenly, and unlike a coastal evacuation, there may have been no order to leave because the slope was not identified as the primary risk. The search for the missing is therefore both a rescue and an investigation into whether hazard mapping kept pace with rainfall.
Relief and rescue operations are continuing across both states, with a central team assessing damage in Andhra Pradesh and state teams working in Odisha. The India Meteorological Department has forecast further heavy rainfall at isolated places and thunderstorms across several states, which means Odisha’s recovery must proceed while new rain remains possible. The Odisha districts are gradually improving as floodwaters recede, according to the ministry, and that gradual improvement, measured in restored sites and receding water rather than in announcements, is the honest metric for the week ahead.
Two states, two recoveries
Comparing the two states’ recoveries is not a competition but a lesson in geography. Coastal damage is dramatic and visible, with poles down and houses damaged in numbers that make headlines. Inland damage is slower and less photogenic, with water in fields, roads under landslides and communities cut off for days after the storm has left the news cycle. Odisha’s recovery will therefore take longer to report as complete, and it risks being forgotten sooner, precisely because its harms are less visible than a coastal surge.
The test for Odisha’s recovery is the same as for Andhra Pradesh’s, but on a longer clock: power restored, telecom sites repaired, missing persons accounted for, and compensation paid after verification. Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal will not meet Andhra Pradesh’s Saturday evening power target, because their damage is different in kind, not only in degree. Judging them by the same deadline would be a category error. Judging them by steady, district by district restoration, with the landslide search as the priority, is the fairer and more useful measure.
