Forecasters say storms expected to hit middle of country Saturday may be ‘life threatening’

This weekend’s outbreak could be a “high-end, life threatening event,” the center said.

The strongly worded message came after the National Weather Service announced last month that it would start using terms like “mass devastation,” ‘’unsurvivable” and “catastrophic” in warnings in an effort to get more people to take heed. It said it would test the new warnings in Kansas and Missouri before deciding whether to expand them to other parts of the country.