The three-storm system that has pounded the Central Coast with heavy rains and gusty winds closed Highway 1 near Lompoc Saturday, closed Highway 154 from Highway 246 to Santa Barbara, restricted traffic on the Cuesta Grade and threatened to close a main access to Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.

The storm is also expected to continue flooding roads and creating other hazardous travel conditions today.

About 7 a.m. Saturday, Caltrans closed Highway 1 between Highway 101 and Highway 246 about nine miles south of Lompoc because of erosion caused by the heavy rain. The pavement gave way because of settling under the road caused by a rain-swollen creek, said Caltrans spokeswoman Marta Bortner.

The area of road affected by the settling is about 20 feet wide by 200 feet long.

Officials hope to have one lane of the highway open for Monday's commute, Bortner said, but she also acknowledged that repairs could take up to a week to complete, depending on weather conditions.

The California Highway Patrol closed Highway 154, also known as San Marcos Pass, at 11 p.m. Saturday due to mud and rocks sliding onto the roadway at Stagecoach Road on 154.

A mudslide on the Cuesta Grade Saturday afternoon in San Luis Obispo County led to the closure of some southbound lanes of Highway 101 until the debris could be cleaned up.

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As a precaution, the slow lane in both directions over the grade will remain closed until the storms have passed, according to the CHP.

The CHP also monitored Avila Beach Drive for flooding, after the heavy rain dumped water on the main access to Port San Luis and Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, but the stretch of roadway remained open Saturday evening.

The California Department of Forestry also spent the day dealing with weather damage as its crews cleared toppled trees and debris out of various roadways around San Luis Obispo County, officials said.

Santa Maria saw almost two inches of rain Saturday with winds reaching as high as 20 mph in the coastal and valley areas and 30 mph in the mountains and foothills, said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service.

The National Weather Service said that the heaviest periods of rain in the multiday storm will come today and Monday night, so residents are urged to take proper precautions and prepare sandbags for any area prone to flooding.

Conditions are particularly treacherous this weekend because the ground is already saturated from the persistent rain over the past two weeks. The soggy ground leaves many areas at risk for flooding.

"This is pretty abnormal because what happens is, we're not getting the breaks between the storms in such a long time. The most we've gotten is a matter of a couple hours," Seto said.

As of Friday, Gilbraltar Reservoir and Jameson Lake in southern Santa Barbara County surpassed their spillway elevations and could start to spill with continued rains. Cachuma Lake is still 30 feet from spilling over Bradbury Dam.

Similar storm conditions are expected to continue until Tuesday night, when the final storm should make its way through the area, and by Wednesday the skies will be partly cloudy through the following weekend, Seto said.

* Staff writer Randi Block can be reached at 347-4580 or by e-mail at rblock@pulitzer.net.

Jan. 9, 2005