"serious devastation" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it whenever you wish to describe something that has been greatly damaged or destroyed. For example, "The hurricane caused serious devastation to the region."
By far, the most serious devastation took place in Punjab and Bengal.
The BBC's Daniel Sandford has described a scene of "pretty serious devastation" in Kiev after pro-EU protesters clashed with police all night.
In many parts of the country the fighting had caused serious devastation, although some other areas remained largely unaffected.
Certainly in many parts of the country, such as Wiltshire, Berkshire, the Thames Valley and East Anglia, the fighting and raiding had caused serious devastation.
"We were actually expecting much more serious devastation," said Surya Raj Acharya, a visiting professor at Tribhuvan University's Department of Civil Engineering.
It caused serious destruction, reaching levels of utter devastation.
Yet the main reason is stupid politics.Even Tory backbenchers cannot think the view-disturbing effect of a windmill as serious as the devastation of one of Britain's most productive marine ecosystems.
Acute shortages of cereals and livestock were rampant following severe droughts in Europe, and the international food supply system was under serious strain after the devastation of the war.
Sure, sure, there were more serious stories involving death and destruction and devastation o'plenty but we tend to concentrate more on those narratives that offer a break from the tension.
The remnants of Hurricane Charley lashed the eastern Carolinas and Virginia with strong winds and rain on Saturday, leaving behind some damaged trees and houses but no serious flooding and none of the devastation the storm caused in Florida.
Whereas Arab violence generates adrenalin-pumping headlines and is mostly reported outside any serious context -- e.g., the U.S. devastation of Iraq, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, the Koran burnings, the ongoing drone assassinations -- the violence that emerges from U.S. policy is softened with so much context it's often a struggle to figure out if anything happened at all.
