ATLANTA (AP) — Bread was flying off the shelves, salt was being loaded into trucks and utility workers nervously watched forecasts Thursday as a huge winter storm that could bring catastrophic damage, widespread power outages and bitterly cold weather barreled toward the eastern two-thirds of the U.S.

The massive storm system is expected to bring a crippling ice storm from Texas through parts of the South, potentially around a foot of snow from Oklahoma through Washington, D.C., New York and Boston, and then a final punch of bitterly cold air that could drop wind chills to minus-50 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of Minnesota and North Dakota.

Forecasters are warning the damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival a hurricane. About 160 million people were under winter storm or cold weather watches or warnings — and in many places both.

[Photo Credit: AP Photo/George Walker IV] A shopper buys groceries in Nashville, Tenn., ahead of a winter storm

When will it start?

The storm was expected to begin Friday in New Mexico and Texas, with the worst weather moving east into the Deep South before heading up the coast and thumping New England with snow.

Cold air streaming down from Canada caused Chicago Public Schools and Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa to cancel classes Friday. Wind chills predicted to be as low as minus-35 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-37 Celsius) could cause frostbite within 10 minutes, making it too dangerous to walk to school or wait for the bus.

The cold punch coming after means it will take a while to thaw out, an especially dangerous prospect in places where ice and snow weigh down tree branches and power lines and cuts electricity, perhaps for days. Roads and sidewalks could remain icy well into next week.

Freezing temperatures are expected all the way to Florida, forecasters said.

A severe cold snap five years ago took down much of the power grid in Texas, leaving millions without power for days and resulting in hundreds of deaths. Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that won't happen again, saying the power system “has never been stronger, never been more prepared."

In the Houston area, CenterPoint Energy, which maintains the wires, poles and electrical infrastructure serving more than 2.8 million customers, had 3,300 employees ready to work the winter storm, said Paul Lock, CenterPoint's local government affairs director.

The difficulty of predicting winter storms

Winter storms can be notoriously tricky to forecast — one or two degrees can mean the difference between a catastrophe or a cold rain — and forecasters said the places with the worst weather can't be pinned down until the event starts.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency while acknowledging Thursday that some forecasts have disastrous levels of wintery weather in Atlanta while others have the Deep South's largest city mostly spared.

Ahead of the storm, Atlanta resident Jennifer Girard bought some blankets and batteries on a Walmart shopping trip in nearby Chamblee with her 21-month-old baby.

Canned food, batteries and water were among the most popular items, leaving shelves less stocked than usual.

“I used to live in Florida, we used to do that all the time for hurricane season, so it’s not so different,” she said.

In the suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky, ice melt and snow shovels sold fast at the family-owned Brownsboro Hardware. Store manager Matthew Isham said the storm “has people on edge.”

“I’ve heard a ton of people saying they don’t think they’re going to get in or out of their driveway if it does snow like they’re saying,” Isham said.

[Photo Credit: AP Photo/George Walker IV] Austin Felts of the Nashville Department of Transportation drives a truck deploying salt brine on roadways

As a precaution, North Carolina’s largest public school system was preparing for potentially several days out of physical classrooms next week. The Wake County school system, with 161,000 students in and around Raleigh, told its nearly 11,000 teachers to create three days of assignments accessible online or through paper copies.

Brine trucks were already treating roads from Oklahoma to Tennessee with more states expected to begin treating roads as the storm gets closer.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger told residents to prepare for days without power or the ability to leave their neighborhoods. And in a nod to the politics of the time, the newly inaugurated Democrat said people should not be scared to call 911 in an emergency just because of the immigration crackdowns going on in places like Minnesota.

Arkansas Department of Transportation spokesman Dave Parker said that this “is not going to be your typical Arkansas storm system.” He pleaded for people to be patient and stay home if possible once the storm hits, even if it takes days to clear sheets of ice off some roads.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry implored people, “I beg you, please take this serious,” as his team highlighted road preparations, warming centers, some 5,000 power line workers on standby and a stock of 600,000 bottles of water.

A Nashville Department of Transportation truck applies salt brine to a roadway — [Photo Credit: AP Photo/George Walker IV] Nashville Department of Transportation truck applies salt brine to a roadway

Charles Fowler and his wife, Kimberly, of Louisville booked a trip to New Orleans to escape the Kentucky cold. The storm could add a wrinkle to their itinerary, flying out Friday morning and returning Sunday, going through Chicago on the way home.

“We may either be staying another night in New Orleans, or we may be staying a night in Chicago,” he said. “But we’re not going to cancel the trip.”

College sports teams moved up or postponed games, and the Texas Rangers canceled their annual Fan Fest event.

The city of Carmel, Indiana, canceled its Winter Games out of fear residents could get frostbite and hypothermia competing in ice trike relay and “human curling” in which people slide down a skating rink on inner tubes.

But the Nashville Symphony said Thursday its weekend performances of “Frozen” were still going on as expected.

In the north Georgia town of Dahlonega, Carrie Gray said she got a 2-gallon jug to store water, charcoal for her grill and logs for a wood stove to stay warm if she loses power. She also snagged a heat lamp so the ducks she keeps outside will be warm.

Gray runs a business that provides tours of local wineries, but said she didn’t schedule any tours this weekend. “If it snows, the wineries won’t open anyway,” she said. “You just kind of have to go with the flow.”

And in Charleston, West Virginia, organizers said the annual West Virginia Hunting and Fishing Show will go on after more than 150 exhibitors signed up for the sold-out event that is expected to draw about 12,000 people Friday through Sunday.

The forecast calls for rain, freezing rain and snow, but with outfitters coming from all over the U.S. as well as Canada and South Africa, the show must go on, said Glen Jarrell, a spokesperson for the West Virginia Trophy Hunters Association, the event’s promoter.

“We’re not thinking about stopping. We don’t care if it’s rain, snow or high water," Jarrell said.

___

Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writers around the country contributed to this report.

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