she heard her radio announce the storm system was approaching woodward, oklahoma, 88-year-old wilma nelsonesitate. >> and i thought, whew, i'd better get out of here and get to my fraidy hole because i had it all prepared in this closet. >> reporter: her granddaughter said a day worth of warnings from the national weather service saved lives. >> we took it very seriously because of the buildup that they had been talking about all week because of storms we had here. >> reporter: over much of kansas where the twisters touched down, the weather service also tried out new attention-grabbing alerting, replacing the old admonition to take cover with "you could be killed." mass devastation is highly likely, making area unrecognizable to survivors. >> people took that information, they realized it was somewhat unprecedented and took action. >> reporter: phil bunting of the national weather service in norman, oklahoma, said lessons learned last year played a role in their decision not to mince words. >> working off notes that they wrote after joplin? >> i think the joplin tornado and others that oc

she heard her radio announce the storm system was approaching woodward, oklahoma, 88-year-old wilma nelson didn't hesitate. >> i thought i better get out of here because i had something prepared in this closet. >> reporter: her granddaughter in law said a day's worth of warnings from the national weather service saved lives. >> we took it very seriously because of the buildup that they had been talking about all week of the chances of storms that we had here. >> reporter: over much of kansas where most of the twisters touched down the weather service also tried out new attention-grabbing alerts, replacing the old admonish in addition to take cover with "you could be killed, mass devastation is highly likely making the area unrecognizable to survivors." >> people took that information, they realized that it was somewhat unprecedented and took action based on that. >> reporter: phil bunting of the national weather service storm prediction center in norman, oklahoma, said lessons learned last year played a role in their decision not to mince words. is the service working off notes they wrote

she heard the radio announce the storm system was approaching woodward, oklahoma, 88-year-old wilma nelson and i thought, whoo, i better get out of here, get to my hole. because i had it all prepared. >> reporter: her granddaughter- in-law, janel semle says a day's worth of warnings saved lives. >> we took it very seriously because of the buildup they had been talking about all week of the chances of storms they had here. >> reporter: over much of kansas, where much of the twisters touched down. they also tried new, attention- grabbing alerts. replacing the old admonition to take cover, with you could be killed. mass devastation is highly unlikely, making the area unrecognizable to survivors. >> people realized that it was somewhat unprecedented. and they took action based on that. >> reporter: bill bunting of the storm prediction center in norman, oklahoma, said lessons learned last year, played a role in their decision not to mince words. >> is the service working on notes they wrote after joplin? >> i think the joplin tornado, as well as others that occurred in 2011, really made it clea