A tornado, hailstorm, and heavy rain have left 98 people dead and nearly 800 injured in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu.
The tornado struck the outskirts of Yancheng City on Thursday afternoon, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Villages in the neighboring Funing County saw winds of up to 125km/h (78mph), flattening power lines, overturning cars and ripping roofs off houses.
"I heard the gales and ran upstairs to shut the windows," Funing resident Xie Litian, 62, told the state-owned Xinhua News Agency. "I had hardly reached the top of the stairs when I heard a boom and saw the entire wall with the windows on it torn away."
When the storm subsided, Xie said all the neighboring houses disappeared.
"It was like the end of the world," Xie said.
Power and communication lines are down in some areas, and emergency supplies, including 1,000 tents, have been rushed to the scene, the civil affairs ministry said in a statement.
On Friday, rescuers were carrying injured villagers into ambulances and delivering food to survivors.
More than 1,300 police officers had been mobilized to help, while emergency supplies were being sent from Beijing.
President Xi Jinping had ordered "all-out rescue efforts" after what local media reports claim to be one of the worst disasters to ever hit the region.
The monsoon season, which runs from May to July, often brings severe weather to China. Earlier this week, severe floods south of the country killed at least 22 people and left 20 missing.
This year's rainy season has been particularly wet, with water levels in several major rivers exceeding those of 1998, when severe flooding affected 180 million people.
Direct economic losses from the floods are estimated to reach 2.7 billion yuan ($410 million), according to the BBC.
Vice Premier Wang Yang said China faces volatile weather conditions due to the influence of the El Nino phenomenon on weather patterns.