Philippine officials ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate and ordered some fishermen not to go out to sea Monday as a typhoon approached from the Pacific.

Authorities warned of torrential rains and potentially deadly storm surges of up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet).

Typhoon Kalmaegi was last located about 235 kilometers (146 miles) east of the Philippine town of Guiuan in Eastern Samar province, with sustained winds of up to 120 kilometers (74 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 150 kph (93 mph), and was forecast to slam into shore later Monday.

It was expected to blow westward overnight and on Tuesday and batter central island provinces, including Cebu, which is still recovering from a 6.9-magnitude earthquake in late September that left at least 79 dead and displaced thousands of people.

More than 70,000 people in the coastal towns of Guiuan, Mercedes and Salcedo were ordered to move to evacuation centers or concrete houses and buildings certified as sturdy enough to withstand the impact of the typhoon.

Thousands of villagers were also being evacuated from island provinces near Eastern Samar,officials s aid, and disaster-response agencies, including the coast guard, have been put on alert.

The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. It is often hit by earthquakes and has over a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.