There are details in the numbers. Three inches of snow here, 11 inches over there. The difference between 33 and 31 when talking about degrees Fahrenheit is the difference between liquid and solid. But behind the numbers are people. Every statistic is tied to a person. Let's meet some of the people those statistics represent.

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At work: Al Roberts

Al Roberts own Al's Towing. The snow started falling early Monday morning and Al's phone began ringing.

“There's another one coming through,” he says as he fumbles for the phone under layers of warm weather clothing.

“This is Al,” he answers on the 6th or 7th ring.

It's another request for another tow. “I can't do anything right now, I'm just slammed busy with all the wrecks out here,” he said. Roberts passes on the job.

The NC Highway Patrol has responded to nearly 700 crashes in this storm; Roberts has handled his share of calls too.

“It's bad out here today,” Roberts said Monday. He was standing on the side of U.S. Highway 1 near Apex, hand on the controls of his roll-back style tow truck, cable attached to a little grey Mitsubishi.

“People, they're moving pretty fast, they are not paying attention to all the ice and snow on the road,” Roberts explains while keeping an eye on traffic passing by.

Roberts has been working for hours at this point.

“Just trying to get them all out of the way,” he says.

Roberts day is so busy his phone rings again, unable to continue our conversation. “I'm getting a phone call right now for another one, just give me a second.”

The worried parent: Tony Rolka

Tony Rolka didn't crash his car on the snow and ice. His daughter did.

“We understand the feeling of sliding off the road and just being scared,” Rolka said sitting in the driver's seat of his daughter's wrecked Mitsubishi.

“I'm here to rescue my daughter,” he said.

She was southbound on U.S. 1 near Apex, the car slid on some ice, she ended up facing the wrong way in the muddy shoulder of the highway. It's a scene repeated over and over across the state. The Highway Patrol says they have received more than 1,500 calls for service over the course of 48 hours.

As the tow truck winch pulled Rolka's car onto the rollback, he admires the tow truck owner for the time and effort put into the job.

“They're indispensable. They come out and do the job others can't or won't do," he said.

Rolka is a little more modest when it comes to his job as a father. “We just do what we're supposed to do as dads, our daughters or kids need us, and we just go.”

Taking a snow day: Elizabeth Quinland

Elizabeth Quinland spent part of Monday playing with her 17-month-old sheepadoodle, Sophia, at Cary's Jack Smith park.

Quinland works from home, and while the North Carolina Department of Transportation had 2,300 people clearing the roads, she decided to take a break from work and let Sophia run in the snow.

“It's nice to hunker in and get in the Christmas spirit,” she said.

She knows the roads are slick and dangerous, staying home, she believes, is the best plan. “I'm fine with it.”