New Delhi, Sep 10 - A continuous downpour that began overnight and lasted through Thursday threw the national capital completely out of gear as chaos reigned.

Rains, one of the heaviest this season, once again caused the same disturbing scenes to be played out again and again - flooding in low-lying areas, uprooted trees, dysfunctional traffic lights, traffic snarls, harried commuters and scared school children who were caught up for hours on end on chaotic roads.

And once again it showed up the unpreparedness of civic authorities to restore normalcy on Delhi's roads as the heavy rainfall, measuring 112 mm, disrupted normal life.

Commuters who set off for their offices in the morning had to battle waterlogged roads, non-functional traffic signals, vehicle breakdowns and serpentine queues of cars, buses, two-sheelers and auto-rickshaws. Disorder reigned on the streets almost throughout the day.

Most affected were the Ring Road, one of the city's lifelines, the Dhaula Kuan crossing and the Delhi-Noida Expressway. Traffic crawled at less than two kilometres an hour in places like Khanpur, Hauz Khas, Indraprastha Estate, Munirka, Ashram and Naraina during rush hours.

Traffic lights that number over 700 failed in several areas, causing huge tailbacks, at times stretching up to more than a kilometre.

Many children reached school late and several office-goers decided to work from home to avoid being stuck on the roads. Some left home but turned back halfway, and those who left early to try and avoid the inevitable jams found it was a futile exercise.

Delhiites had a litany of woes.

'I reached more than an hour after the usual time. The attendance was also very low in the school. A lot of buses had not reached the school due to rain,' said Anushka Baruah, a student of Class 8 of the Shri Ram School, Gurgaon.

'It took me nearly an hour to reach office on Rao Tula Ram Marg from my home in Subroto Park. On a normal day, it takes a maximum of five minutes. I was on a bike. Those in buses were in really bad condition,' commuter Naresh Kumar told IANS.

'The expressway only got me to the jam faster,' complained a young executive who left his Gurgaon home at 8 a.m. for his office in central Delhi, only to get stuck at Dhaula Kuan. More than two hours after he left home, he still hadn't reached office.

Santosh Kumar, who works in a private company, said: 'It took over 90 minutes to cover a distance of just three kilometres.