CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Panicked shoppers emptied shelves of bread and milk, road workers began working 12-hour shifts, and governors in Alabama and Georgia declared states of emergencies ahead of a winter storm stalking the South.

In Cary, N.C., Stuart Hall’s regular run for groceries looked like something out of the just concluded holiday shopping season.

Hall said the parking lot of the store near his home in Cary is usually fairly empty when he shops so late in the week. But across the South, many were stocking up on eggs, bread, milk and other staples ahead of the storm’s expected arrival late today amid threats of snow, sleet and freezing rain across the Southeast.

“Today, it was like mall shopping during the holidays. People going up and down the lanes looking for a spot,” he said Thursday. “As I walked in, I jokingly asked if there was any food and the clerk just laughed.”

Sherrill Suitt Craig went shopping at a store near her home in north Raleigh, but she had to leave for a grocer in nearby Wake Forest because her initial stop was too crowded.

“I have no idea why, but people are acting like complete jackasses when they hear that there is snow in the forecast,” Craig said. “I was just doing my regular shopping.”

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for part of today and Saturday from eastern Alabama through north Georgia, including Atlanta, and into the Carolinas and part of Virginia.

Schools canceled classes in several states and Alabama and Georgia issued emergency declarations ahead of the storm, which already was being blamed for one road fatality Thursday in Kentucky.

Daniel Noble, 55, died after he rounded a curve in his pickup truck and slid off into a rail fence about 14 miles south of the city of Jackson, authorities said, adding there was about an inch of new snow on the road.