On Monday, April 2, the National Weather Service in the United States plans to test a new Emergency Alert System designed to make people living in the country's infamous "Tornado Alley" sit up and take notice in the event of a serious outbreak of deadly storms.
Fearing that people may have become desensitized to an overload of weather-related warnings in recent years, the agency will now be using more graphic language in their alerts with the intent of making people pay close attention and heed the warnings.
If a storm is deemed highly dangerous by the meteorological office, intense words and phrases will now be used to convey the danger of the situation. Sample phrases of the stark wording would include, "Mass devastation is highly likely, making the area unrecognizable to survivors" or "This storm is not survivable unless you take immediate shelter."
As of now, the new alert system will be tested only in the states of Kansas and Missouri. Missouri saw one of the deadliest tornadoes of all time last year, when an unprecedented F5 beast swept across Joplin, reducing almost the entire city into rubble and killing 161 people.
It is the hope of the agency that the new, strongly-worded warnings will quickly spread across social media web sites such as twitter and Facebook as well as on television and radio, giving more people time to head for cover in order to save their lives.
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