According to officials the Philippines began to evacuate tens of thousands of people on Thursday from the region Bicol, the coastal area, out of typhoon Mitag’s way.

Last year the eastern Philippines region suffered from the devastating typhoon Durian, which triggered flash floods and volcanic mudslides killing 1,200 people and leaving 120,000 homeless, Reuters reports.

Now the officials try to prevent that from happening again.

The head of the civil defense office, Glenn Rabonza, said that 10,000 people that live on the slopes of Mayon volcano in Bicol have been evacuated. In the next 24 hours the number could rise up to 50,000.

He said: “It‘s been raining for many days in some areas, and these are ripe for landslides. We're worried about the huge amount of volcanic debris that might be re-mobilized and eat up communities along the slopes of Mount Mayon.”

He added that the waves could be huge. "Coastal villages could be slammed by big waves as high as 3 to 10 meters whipped up by strong winds brought by the typhoon,” he said.

Typhoon Mitag is expected to hit the eastern Philippines late Saturday or early Sunday.

Mitag, developed from tropical storm Hagibis that caused landslide, destruction of property of over $1 million, is now a typhoon of category 1 having winds of 75 mph and gusts of up to 95 miles.

According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Administration Services the storm was located 250 miles east of Virac in the province of Catanduanes, and was moving westwards at 9 mph with gusts up to 105 mph.

In Manilla workers began to take down advertisement billboards placed along major roads. Billboards like these killed several people in the storm last year.

Storm Hagibis is now over South China Sea and is moving towards Vietnam. It has killed 13 people in the central and southern Philippines.