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^{In a big relief for the Kerala administration and thousands of people living around the worst-flood affected Idukki dam, the waters here started receding and no rainfall was reported on Saturday.}

^{The situation also appeared to be slowly improving in and around Ernakulam and Thrissur where several people were rendered homeless due to incessant floods in the recent past.}

^{"The rains have slowed down in and around the Idukki dam since last night and hence the water level in the dam has also come down," State Power Minister MM Mani informed.} 

^{"So far things are fine and everything is going as planned. The water that came down the five floodgates, barring at Cheruthoni, has not caused any major crisis," Mani added.}

^{The state's Power Minister has been monitoring the situation from here.}

^{Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday announced a compensation of Rs 4 Lakh to the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs 10 Lakh compensation to those who lost their houses and land.}

^{Earlier this morning, Vijayan, accompanied by Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, State Forest Minister P Raju, Chief Secretary Tom Jose and Kerala Police Chief Loknath Behra, took off in a helicopter from Thiruvananthapuram to survey the worst affected districts.}

^{Though the ministers were scheduled to stop at Idukki, bad weather conditions at the landing area in Kattapana forced them to travel to Wayanad, the CM said in a Facebook post.}

^{Cheruthoni is the nearest town to the Idamalayar dam and with water gushing down the spillway for the first time in 26 years, there was heavy flooding in the area.} 

^{The Cheruthoni bridge continued to be submerged. It had come under severe stress with huge trees that have been uprooted coming and hitting the bridge.}

^{The water level at the Idukki dam was now at 2,401 feet after it came down on Friday night as the intensity of the rains decreased.} 

^{On Saturday, the inflow into the dam stood at 6,00,000 litres of water per second, while the outflow through the floodgates is 7.50 lakh litres per second.}

^{Authorities on Friday expected that parts of Ernakulam and Thrissur districts would be submerged following the opening of all five floodgates. However, this did not happen as the dam water entered the tributaries of the Periyar river in a systematic manner.}

^{According to informed sources, if the water level in the dam comes down to 2,400 feet, it was likely to bring down the outflow through the five shutters as well - to around 5,00,000 litres per second.} 

^{On Saturday morning, a team led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accompanied by Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, State Forest Minister P Raju, Chief Secretary Tom Jose and Kerala Police Chief Loknath Behra took off in a helicopter from Thiruvananthapuram to survey the worst affected districts.}

^{Even though their first stop was planned at Idukki, Vijayan wrote in his Facebook post that due to bad weather conditions at the landing area in Kattapana, they have been forced to travel to Wayanad.}

^{"So far things are fine and everything is going as planned. The water that came down the five floodgates, barring at Cheruthoni, has not caused any major crisis," Mani added.}