MOORE, Okla. — One of the worst tornados in modern history left a 14-mile path of devastation through Moore, Oklahoma. Twenty-five people were killed and over 1,000 homes were leveled during 40 minutes of terror on May 20, 2013.
Aria Vargyas was eight years old and in second grade when the EF5 tornado obliterated her grade school.
“When I woke up, I was being pulled out of the rubble by some guy I didn't even know," she told us.
Her older brother was in fifth grade at Briarwood Elementary and he also survived.
Their two little sisters did not. They were at home with their mom and grandma.
“Our tornado precaution was to get in the bathtub and put a mattress over our heads. So that's what they did," Aria remembers. "My grandma grabbed one of my sisters and my mom held on to the other and all four of them were picked up and then tossed and scattered around just the house.”
The family found baby Sydnee's body immediately. It took three days to find Karrina. Dad broke the news to Aria and her brother.
“That's when it started to click that I'm not going to be seeing them anymore unless it's pictures, videos, dreams," she said.
Her mom and grandma required surgeries. Grandma had to attend the funerals in a cast and wheelchair.
As the people of Moore and the Vargyas family rebuilt their lives, so did Aria.
“I was obsessed with tornadoes. I drew them, I researched them. I had dreams, watched them," Aria told us. "It was just everything tornado, and so I was obsessed and just loved the science.”
Now a decade later, Aria, 19, is chasing the very type of storm that killed her siblings. She is 19 and a rising sophomore at Texas A&M which boasts one of the best atmospheric sciences programs in the country.
Aria is majoring in meteorology and she joined the student storm chaser program chasing her first tornado in April.
“We see the storms actually forming and I'm like, 'OK, this is where it gets good,'" Aria said. "So, I'm looking at radar, I'm looking at the maps, trying to find roads. I'm just like in awe of seeing the clouds because you can visibly see the storm rotating and you saw how fast-paced it was moving.”
What do her folks think about their only surviving daughter becoming a storm chaser?
“Like they think I am absolutely insane," she laughed. "But they're both supportive.”
Aria wants to forecast storms to help keep other families from losing loved ones and to honor her sisters.
As she chased her first tornado that day, she thought of them.
“I kept looking up to the sky, kept putting my hand on my chest and, you know, just saying 'I love you' to them."
