The regional shelter at East Lyme Middle School that housed about 10 residents from local communities overnight will close at 3 p.m. today, according to the American Red Cross. 

Norwich's emergency shelter at the Kelly Middle School, which housed three people overnight during the blizzard, will close at 2 p.m. today, Emergency Management Director Gene Arters said.

Arters said the three people have left the shelter as of 1:30 p.m.

The American Red Cross shelter at the middle school in East Lyme provides meals and cots for residents in the communities of East Lyme, Old Lyme, Lyme, Waterford, Salem and Montville. There is also an area to shelter pets. 

The American Red Cross has the capacity to serve about 600 people at shelter. During the blizzard of 2013, about 50 people stayed in the East Lyme shelter, said Sue Rochester-Bolen, the senior director of Emergency Services at the American Red Cross. 

Rochester-Bolen said one resident stayed overnight at the Red Cross shelter at Kelly Middle School in Norwich, while no residents were reported to have stayed at the Red Cross shelter in New London. Both shelters also will close this afternoon. 

She said many people sheltered in place during this blizzard, likely due to a lack of power outages, unsafe driving conditions and residents’ general preparedness. 

“We’ve been through this before, and I think people learned a lot of lessons during the last blizzard,” said Rochester-Bolen. “I think people were prepared.” 

The shelter on Society Road in East Lyme will remain open until the roads are passable, and it’s safe for residents to leave, she said this morning. 

“The towns are being great, as they always are, with getting residents back home safely,” she said this afternoon.