Mayon has awoken once again as it began rumbling last month sending lava and plumes of ash into the air. At night the volcano’s famous cone glows with hot lava.

Now, more than 47,000 people living within a 5 mile (8 kilometer) danger zone around the volcano have fled to evacuation centers with the help of Philippine soldiers and the solders are still trying to evacuate several hundred of the closest residents who have refused to leave their homes. While Philippine vulcanologist may lower the alert level around the 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) volcano, Mayon still remains a viable threat.

The mere threat of eruption can displace local villagers for months at a time. Mayon, which is about 200 miles (330 kilometers) southeast of Manila, has erupted 48 times in recorded history. In 1814, more than 1,200 people were killed when lava flows buried the town of Cagsawa. It last erupted for two months in 2006, although no one was directly killed, a powerful typhoon burying entire towns with volcanic debris from Mayon’s slopes and killing over 1,000 people three months after the eruption.

The Philippine people living in the shadow of this most dynamic and active volcano can only wait and see if Mount Mayon returns to sleeping or continues with another violent episode.