In a story that seems inspired by the plot of Twisters, a college student who survived a massive tornado more than a decade ago that killed her two little sisters is now learning how to predict the same type of extreme weather that upended her town and family. Per CBS News, Aria Vargyas, now 20 and a student at Texas A&M, was only 8 when the nation's last EF5 tornado swept through her town of Moore, Oklahoma, killing two dozen people and leaving many more hurt. Vargyas was at school when her two younger sisters, 4-year-old Karrina and 7-month-old Sydnee, were killed in the family home.
"It was a blur," Vargyas recalls of that day, per Texas A&M University. "All I really remember is that my knees were to my chest, and I had a textbook on my head, and then, there was dead silence. Next thing I know, I'm getting carried out of the rubble." Once that blur cleared, Vargyas had to deal with the pain of losing her younger siblings: "I realized that birthdays were going to be different, Christmases were going to be different. ... I had to learn to live life without my sisters." One of the ways she learned to cope was by immersing herself in the science of meteorology, learning how storms were formed and vowing to one day more formally undertake that study.
Now, as a meteorology student, Vargyas is doing just that. "Understanding the intricacies of atmospheric processes is crucial in my quest to improve storm prediction and response," she says. "Ultimately, I do want to storm chase, looking at the radar, taking pictures, and mapping." Her dad, Phillip Vargyas, says he's proud of his daughter for turning her devastation into something positive. "It would have been easy for her to use this as an excuse for not moving forward," he tells CBS. "She didn't give up right after she lost her sisters, which should be easy to do." Watch more of Vargyas' story here. (More uplifting news stories.)
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