The expected blizzard that sent shoppers rushing to grocery stores, halted travel and closed schools across the region fizzled by late morning on Tuesday, giving way to a slushy, sloppy mess.

“We may get a little dusting late tonight, early morning, but nothing to worry about. For all intents and purposes, it’s over,” said Joseph Sastre, Groton’s director of emergency management.

“It was a big nothing, but that’s OK,” he said.

Beginning early Tuesday, the storm tracked farther west than expected, causing rain to start hours earlier and avoiding high snow accumulations in southeastern Connecticut, according to meteorologist Gary Lessor.

Lessor, the assistant director of The Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University, said stormy conditions would persist for the next 24 to 36 hours, bringing more rain and possibly snow showers as the weather system's counterclockwise rotation brings bands of precipitation south from Maine and New Hampshire.

While snowfall totals met predictions farther north and west, with totals of 15 inches in Burlington and 17 inches in Litchfield, the 7-12 inches expected for southern New London County did not materialize.

Wide ranges are predicted “when you have a storm that’s this monstrous (because) you get that much variance,” Lessor said.

Predicted coastal flooding and high winds did materialize, however, with gusts as high as 53 mph in Groton and 35 mph in Ledyard.

"All in all, it's not a bust but not a perfect prediction, either," Lessor said.

The travel ban on state roads issued by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy that went into effect at 5 a.m. Tuesday was lifted as of 5 p.m. The governor still urged motorists to remain at home whenever possible.

"Crews are still clearing snow from many roads, and black ice continues to be a concern. If you absolutely do not need to travel, stay where you are this evening," Malloy said in a news release. He thanked residents for staying off roads while state Department of Transportation plows worked to clear them.

State police said they handled 28 minor crashes and 84 motorist assists between 5 a.m. and 1 p.m. For the first five hours of the storm, they received 342 calls for service. State police in the Montville barracks handled five accidents as of 4 p.m., but none with injuries, a dispatcher said.

In Groton, a tree fell onto a trailer in a mobile home park off Flanders Road about 10 a.m. The tree poked a hole through the roof, but no one was injured. About 2 p.m., public works crews were called to respond to flooding at the Groton Ambulance Building due to a leaking roof.

Bus service was suspended across the state. Most flights in and out of Bradley International Airport were canceled and Metro North planned to make trains departing their original terminals between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. the last to run.

Steve Farrelly, owner of the salt distribution company DRVN Enterprises, said he had a hectic weekend, with requests from last-minute customers. On Monday, the New London company delivered 180 loads of salt, with an average load of 22 tons, he said.

DRVN supplies rock salt mixed with calcium chloride and lignin, an organic tree extract, as well as pure rock salt. The business supplies local municipalities like Waterford and New London, as well as private companies.

By 2 p.m. Tuesday, Waterford Public Works Director Kristin Zawacki said the department’s main priority was removing as much slush and rain from the roads as possible before temperatures dipped overnight and froze it in place.

“The crews have kept up well,” Zawacki said in an email. “The issue will be the drop in temperature later. They are going to try to clean up as much of the sidewalks as they can.”

Norwich Public Utilities reported no power outages Tuesday, and city officials closed the Emergency Operations Center at 3 p.m., earlier than expected, NPU spokesman Chris Riley said.

Norwich City Manager John Salomone said Public Works Department plow crews planned to continue working through late evening to remove layers of slush from the roads before expected overnight freezing.

“We were very pleased that we didn't have the storm that was predicted,” Salomone said. “... It became just an average snowfall, much less than we thought we would get.”

Preston First Selectman Robert Congdon, who also serves as Public Works director, said there were some downed trees in town, but no power outages or road closures. Congdon credited Eversource's tree-cutting efforts in recent years and said several years ago, a storm of Tuesday's magnitude would have put much of the town in the dark.

There were few problems in the snow removal operations in Ledyard, according to Public Works Director Steve Maslin. A tree brought down wires on Vinegar Hill Road and gave road-clearing crews limited access as Eversource worked on it, but for the most part things went very smoothly, with extra personnel called in and the roads pre-treated going into the storm Tuesday.

"I think the big thing that helped was that there was just no traffic today ... everything kind of came together, it was mostly a non-event," Maslin said.

North Stonington Town Highway Foreman Stephen Holliday agreed that the travel ban was helpful as the plows were able to work unimpeded.

"I was glad the governor did what he did and made it easier for us working around the state highway," Holliday said as he and crews wrapped up plowing about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. "No matter what the weather is, it seems like people go to the casinos. ... It's nice not to have any traffic out there competing with us."

Both Maslin and Holliday said they would be applying more salt on the roads later on as temperatures drop.

"When you're prepared and expecting something significant, something like this is very routine," Maslin said.

Snow had turned to rain in East Lyme by late morning, where coastal flooding remained a threat as the 12:18 p.m. high tide approached.

"We were down in Crescent Beach and Oak Grove, and it's pounding pretty good down there," Public Safety Director Richard E. Morris said. "The winds are pushing hard. The waves are up a good four or five feet and are washing over the breakwater at the Niantic Yacht Club."

Town firehouses were staffed and public crews worked to clear roads. Most businesses in town were closed.

Old Lyme First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder said at noontime the town's emergency operations center was open with light staff, but there was not much to monitor since the snow had changed to rain.

"We haven't had any reports of flooding," Reemsnyder said. "It's just nasty out there."

Reporters Claire Bessette, Julia Bergman, Nate Lynch, Lindsay Boyle, Karen Florin and Martha Shanahan contributed to this report.

d.straszheim@theday.com