LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - People from Texas to New York were bundling up on Thursday against a winter storm that closed schools and businesses, blanketed roads and power lines with ice and threatened to disrupt road travel across a wide swath of the United States. The southern plains and central region, including Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas were expected to be especially hard hit by the storm, according to the National Weather Service. Many grocery stores reported running low on bread, milk, bottled water and snack foods by noon on Thursday. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon activated the state's 24-hour emergency operations center. Missouri's highway patrol has readied all of its four-wheel drive vehicles to reach motorists as needed on snow-packed roads, according to a statement from Nixon's office. Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe and Texas Governor Rick Perry also directed state resources to prepare for the storm. A motorist was killed in a vehicle rollover on a snowy state highway in southwest Missouri on Thursday, said Sergeant Jason Pace of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. "We are seeing partially to totally snow-covered roads," Pace said. There are lots of slide-offs and multiple accidents related to that. The Arkansas State Police said there were numerous reports of car accidents. The National Weather Service said 4 to 8 inches of snow was forecast for Missouri overnight and into Friday. Freezing rain and sleet will make roads treacherous in Tennessee on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. "Basically we're going to get a bunch of cold rain on and off (Friday), then sub-freezing temperatures are going to move in," said weather service meteorologist Angie Lese in Nashville. After the storm passes, temperatures in parts of the central and western United States will be 10 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 to 17 Celsius) below normal through the weekend as a cold air mass spreads through those regions, the National Weather Service said. FedEx said in a statement on Thursday, its 15 meteorologists are closely monitoring the severe winter storm moving across the country. "We have detailed contingency plans in place to help mitigate any delays," FedEx spokeswoman Carla Boyd said in a statement. Additional reporting by Carey Gillam in Chicago, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas, Tim Ghianni in Nashville and Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Missouri; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Paul Simao