NAMPA — Many Treasure Valley shoppers were stocking up on paper products, soaps, canned food and face masks Wednesday in preparation for coronavirus to hit Idaho.

The lines at Costco Wholesale in Nampa were long with most carts piled high with toilet paper, soap and bottled water. By Wednesday afternoon, Costco had run out of bottled water, soap and hand sanitizer, an employee said. Later Wednesday afternoon, shelves normally stocked with toilet paper were bare.

Similar scenes were playing out across southern Idaho.

The Army Surplus Warehouse south of Idaho Falls sold more than 80,000 respirator face masks in the last week and was shipping pallets of supplies to places across the country that had already run low. The store, which is the region’s largest military surplus retailer, also sells products nationwide through its website armysurpluswarehouse.com.

The warehouse had also been one of the last stores to restock on Mountain House meals ready to eat before demand began to delay shipments. Co-owner Dana Collins said the current market was the biggest demand for their stock he could remember since people were preparing for Y2K. Collins has owned the store since 1978.

“I always tell people that if they don’t use all their stuff for this pandemic, or whatever you want to call it, you can always use it for camping,” Collins said.

A Walgreens employee said its stores in Nampa and Caldwell had all run out of hand sanitizer and face masks by Wednesday morning.

“People are really scared here,” said the employee, who works in stores in Nampa and Caldwell.

The Washington Post reported Nielsen data shows sales of medical masks have risen 78% in the most recent week. Also spiking are sales of hand sanitizer, thermometers, disinfectant sprays and dried beans.

State officials, including Gov. Brad Little, said they expect the coronavirus to hit Idaho at some point. Idaho has seen no confirmed cases yet, and the risk of contracting the virus is low, Idaho Division of Public Health Medical Director Christine Hahn said Wednesday at a press conference in the Governor’s Office.

Sharron Hansen was loading her car up with water and toilet paper in the Costco parking lot in Nampa Wednesday. Though she wasn’t panicked about the coronavirus, she said others in the store seemed to be.

“People are going crazy over toilet paper and hand sanitizer,” Hansen said. “This is the second Costco I have been to today for these supplies.”

She had visited the Costco in Boise on Cole Road. She said both stores were limiting how much toilet paper and hand sanitizer people could purchase. She said she was purchasing the toilet paper and water as just general supplies for her family.

Hansen said a checkout clerk from Costco told her they hadn’t had sales numbers like this since Christmas.

At a WinCo Foods in Boise Tuesday, small signs on the hand sanitizer shelf read “Supplier shortage” and “Limit 2.”

Nationally, more than 120 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in at least 15 states, and 11 people have died, all but one of whom lived in Washington state, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. Globally, the number of infections has risen to 94,000, with 3,200 deaths.

Virginia McElroy, who also was loading up groceries Wednesday at the Nampa Costco, said she was doubling up on supplies like toilet paper and soap.

“I think people are worried, but not panicked yet,” McElroy said.

Costco had run out of bottled water before McElroy was able to get any. She said she would be stopping at another store for bottled water while she was out.

Shoppers were also stocking up on canned foods. Anne Turner said Costco had run out of several canned goods, including green beans. When she had asked a clerk if they had moved the canned goods, they answered no, they had just ran out.

“You get a sense of people rushing to get things, rushing to get what they want,” Turner said.

She said she noticed lots of couples shopping together, many with more than one shopping cart piled high with goods.

Other Treasure Valley shoppers have gone further than stocking up on canned goods and have purchased special respirator masks from Boise Army-Navy, a military surplus store in Garden City.

Loren Eskelin, a cashier at Boise Army Navy, said the store is sold out of its stock of more than 20 masks in the last few days and it is still getting calls from people asking if store employees could hold some of the masks, which cost up to $30, until they could get there.

“People are flustered. They call and ask if we can hold a mask for them, but we have to tell them ‘no’ because we are all out,” Eskelin said.

Eskelin said the store also has been selling a lot of its ready-to-eat freeze-dried meals.

At the Idaho Falls Sam’s Club, the sections for toilet paper and paper towels were completely empty on Wednesday afternoon. The sections for bottled water and Clorox wipes were down to a single pallet, with some customers checking out with just cleaning supplies in their carts.

“If you just look around, you can get a sense of what we’re running out of,” one Sam’s Club employee said.

Post Register reporter Brennen Kauffman contributed to this article.