YICHANG, Hubei — Wang Bixiang and his family living in Zigui city near the Three Gorges Dam were chatting with their neighbors as usual on Tuesday morning, without any worry that floodwaters were peaking nearby.

The massive flooding in 1954 and 1998 is still a nightmare for the older generation, but the younger generation seems unconcerned about the recent heavy rains, due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, which is effectively controlling the flood, Wang said.

The Three Gorges Dam on Yangtze River is holding up against its first major flood-control test, said Chen Fei, general manager of the China Three Gorges Corporation on Tuesday.

The flow of the river's upper reaches topped 70,000 cubic meters per second at the Three Gorges Dam on Tuesday, about 20,000 cubic meters more than the flow during 1998 that killed 2,140 people. The recent rains caused the highest level since the dam was completed in 2009.

The flow peaked about 8 am, still below the record high of 70,800 cubic meters per second in 1981, Xinhua News Agency quoted a spokesman with the corporation as saying.

The discharge of the Three Gorges Dam was raised to 40,000 cubic meters every second at 10 am and will remain at that level for the coming days, Chen said.

"The peak flow is high, but it has not exceeded the designed capacity that can bear the flood flow of 98,800 cubic meters every second," he said.

On Tuesday, the water level of the dam reached 150 meters, about five meters higher than the warning level, China Central Television reported.

The maximum water level of the dam is expected to reach 158 meters on Friday and the water volume stored will reach seven billion cubic meters, according to authorities at the Yangtze River flood control headquarters.

The Three Gorges Dam can store a minimum of 22.1 million cubic meters of floodwater.