Several days of heavy rain lashed areas of central and eastern China, resulting in widespread flooding, deaths, and property damage. According the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (SCDRH), by Sunday 186 people had died, while another 45 were missing. Damage to property amounted to more than 50 billion yuan (nearly $7.6 billion).

As people around the country are coping with the deluge of water, the SCDRH warned on Sunday that there are two more periods of heavy rain forecast for the coming 10 days. Authorities warned in March that this year’s rainy season, from May to August, would be one of the worst in recent history, owing to a particularly strong El Nino effect.

Over the weekend many of China’s rivers — including the Yangtze, the country’s longest — neared or surpassed their warning levels. On Sunday authorities warned of a flood peak forming on the Yangtze, and on Monday morning water levels along the middle and lower reaches of the river were reported to still be on the rise.

× 1/13 A fireman carries a young boy to safety in a village in Wuhan, Hubei province, June 2, 2016. The village was flooded Sunday night after torrential rain. E You/VCG 2/13 Two men push a truck through the water after heavy rain in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, July 2, 2016. Hu Guolin/VCG 3/13 A woman opens a door in her flooded house in a village in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, July 3, 2016. Chen Wei/VCG 4/13 A man carrying cooking equipment walks across a flooded road in Shucheng, Anhui province, July 3, 2016. Xiang Chunlei/VCG 5/13 A man fashions a raft from an inflatable tube and a wooden basin in Kongcheng Town, Tongcheng City, Anhui province, July 3, 2016. Kongcheng Town was among the hardest hit by floods. Peng Yan/VCG 6/13 Two men use a net to fish on a flooded county road in Shucheng County, Anhui province, July 3, 2016. Xiang Chunlei/VCG 7/13 A bus stalls on a flooded street in Wuhan, Hubei province, July 2, 2016. Don MCcurren /VCG 8/13 Two men attempt to move a car from a flooded parking deck, where water has stalled the engines of dozens of vehicles, Wuhan, Hubei province, July 2, 2016. Don MCcurren/VCG 9/13 A man carries a woman across a flooded street in Wuhan, Hubei province, July 2, 2016. Tangmaikaren/IC 10/13 A man walks across a wooden plank bridge above floodwater at Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Jiangsu province, July 3, 2016. Fang Dongxu/VCG 11/13 Mingtang Stadium has become a giant swimming pool after the weekend’s torrential rain, Ezhou, Hubei province, July 2, 2016. Fang Zhonghua/VCG 12/13 A Chinese chess table is partially submerged by water in a residential area in Wuhan, Hubei province, July 2, 2016. Dfic/IC 13/13 Water spurts from the Ming dynasty city wall after days of continuous rain in Nanjing, July 1, 2016. Su Yang/IC

(Header image: Two people swim by a partially submerged pavilion in Wuchang, Hubei province, July 2, 2016. Miao Jian/VCG)