BHOPAL: The season's heaviest spell - 103mm in 12 hours - left Bhopal wallowing in misery as bewildered residents woke up to knee-deep water inside their homes, cars submerged in flooded basements and streams on streets that made morning commute agonizing on Thursday. Brace for more heavy rain on Friday.With just 15 portable pumps at hand, BMC found itself floundering in deep waters. Each of these is of 5hp power, which would struggle to drain a small waterlogged room in 15 minutes. More than 100 localities went under water, and kids even went fishing on roads near Shahpura Lake after it spilled over its banks.BMC felt so helpless at one point that mayor Alok Sharma plonked a plastic stool in the middle of waterlogged Safia College Road and sat on dharna - against the PWD, run by his own party's government. He was upset at PWD's failure to solve perennial waterlogging on the road, which connects to the commercial zone of Hamidia Road. The area is part of North Bhopal constituency, currently held by Congress.Attendance was down in schools and offices because of the pounding rain, but collector Sudam Khade said there was no reason to declare a holiday unless there was an emergency. He left schools in low-lying areas to take the call on declaring holiday.The overnight rains raised the level of Upper Lake by a foot - it now stands at 1,653 feet, still 13 feet short of full tank level. During peak summer, it had dropped to the alarming level of 1,649 feet. "Waterlogging has been reported in various areas. Most of the BMC staff are deployed in the field," said the mayor.Areas near the airport , Abbas Nagar and Gandhi Nagar reported severe waterlogging, while overflowing sewage submerged Bairagarh Road. Water flowing from down from Idgah Hills caused flooding near old civil court.

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