NEW DELHI, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System has issued a red alert for India as Tropical Cyclone Hudhud approaches.

The alert, issued Wednesday, is in effect until Friday. With landfall expected over the weekend, a new alert will likely be issued.

India's port city of Visakhapatnam, home to two million people, is in the direct line of Tropical Cyclone Hudhud.

District officials along the Bay of Bengal in Andhra Pradesh are bracing for the storm, and have issued a high alert for residents.

"Open relief camps wherever needed and move people from vulnerable areas to safety. Keep essential commodities ready for the evacuees," Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary IYR Krishna Rao directed officials in a video-conference Thursday.

As residents prepare for the storm, the Times of India reports "the prices of vegetables have increased by 40 percent since Monday" and "some items like candles have vanished from shops."

According to GDACS, the cyclone has a maximum wind speed of 185 km/hour and could impact 9.4 million people in its path. "Tropical Cyclone Hudhud-14 can have a high humanitarian impact based on the maximum sustained wind speed and the affected population and their vulnerability."

The Weather Channel reported Thursday the cyclone, also known by its alphanumeric designation 03B, "is strengthening as it churns over the Bay of Bengal in the northern Indian Ocean basin."

Once it makes landfall possibly early Sunday, the U.S. Naval Observatory's Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects Hudhud to dissipate and become the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane.

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Link:

Tropical Cyclone Hudhud heads for India; red alert issued