The Orissa government on Thursday breathed easy as over 11 lakh cusecs of flood waters in the Mahanadi river system passed without causing damage to the tune it was anticipated. Nonetheless, over 18 lakh people in 23 districts were affected by the high floods in the Mahanadi and other major rivers in the state. And the death toll in the natural calamity, according to official sources, rose to 35. Nearly 80 cattle perished and 2.11 lakh hectares of farm lands were damaged the flood. Special relief commissioner (SRC) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said the peak volume of 11.50 lakh cusecs of water had already passed through the Mundali barrage on Thursday and the water levels in the Mahanadi and its branches were slowly receding. “It’s a great relief for all of us. Due to sunny weather and no rains in the upper and lower catchments of the Mahanadi in the past 24 hours, the damage is minimised,” the SRC said. He added that nearly one lakh people were evacuated and shifted to safer places. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who made an aerial visit of the flood affected districts such as Kendrapara, Jagatsin-ghpur, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore, announced free relief materials for the flood-hit people for seven days. The administration has opened 240 free kitchens in the affected pockets for the flood victims. Meanwhile, Hirakud Dam authorities closed three of the 50 sluice gates that saw a little fall in the outflow of water from the reservoir. “The water resources department will take a final call later today on shutting down more sluice gates. We have to release more water from the dam to accommodate more flood water as the Met department is predicting more rainfall in the upper catchment from August 10,” said the SRC.