An emergency alert was sent out to some people in the Morro Bay and Los Osos communities Wednesday, but not the area where the EF-1 tornado struck in Grover Beach.
“I heard the winds going crazy and I didn't know if it took down the house too. I looked through the window and I couldn't see my car at all,” said Josh Zachmann, a Grover Beach resident impacted by the tornado.
Although no one was hurt, Zachmann was frustrated that he didn't receive an emergency alert on his phone.
“If I had gotten an alert I would have at least moved my car,” Zachmann said.
Margot Bourget lives nearby and was visiting a friend when she decided to head home because of the weather.
“The weather was so bad and my car was moving around. I didn't know if you were supposed to stop or not, ”Bourget said.
She says she also did not receive an emergency alert and was only notified of the potential for a tornado from the Nextdoor app.
“Had I not had Nextdoor, I don't know if I would have gotten the alert,” Bourget said.
KSBY asked Scott Jalbert, the Office of Emergency Services director for San Luis Obispo County, why alerts were not received by people in the Grover Beach community.
“On this last tornado, it was actually issued for Morro Bay and Los Osos and 14 miles southeast of that location. The only people who received those alerts are those who are physically in that geographical area,” Jalbert said.
Jalbert says one of the challenges in California is that tornadoes are very short-lived and happen very quickly.
“There was not enough time to get the alert out by the time the National Weather Service saw it. By the time it occurred, it was already over,” Jalbert said.
However, he says following what took place this week, his office is looking into what they can do differently in the future,
“After this last tornado, we were reviewing an after-action report of the incident and we're going to see if we can do anything to improve our systems,” Jalbert said.
To sign up for emergency alerts in San Luis Obispo County, click here.
