China's Yangtze River saw its third flood of the year on its upper reaches on Sunday afternoon, caused by rising water levels in its trunk streams and leading to increased inflow into the Three Gorges reservoir.

At 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, the reservoir reported a maximum inflow of 50,000 cubic meters per second and the national observatory on Monday renewed a blue alert for rainstorms in several provinces and regions.

Torrential rain since Saturday evening has wreaked havoc across Jianshi County in Enshi Prefecture of central China's Hubei Province. The county has been overwhelmed after steady rainfall reached almost 180 millimeters. 

Local authorities on Sunday morning raised the flood emergency response from the second highest to the top alert, warning that water levels in the hardest-hit areas could be over 560 millimeters. 

Floods have caused five deaths and left one person missing in Jianshi as of Sunday afternoon. And some 160,000 people have been affected across the county, according to local authorities. 

Read more about China's battle with heavy rainfall here.