Dozens Of Palm Beach Residents Report Missing Tornado alerts

Dozens of Palm Beach County residents expressed their concern on social media about not receiving emergency alerts to their cellphones ahead of tornadoes that ripped through the area ahead of Hurricane Milton.

According to an investigative report, Helen Kincaid, who lives in The Acreage community of western Palm Beach County, was putting up the last shutter of her home when a twister touched down about 2 miles away. Kincaid did not receive a severe weather alert, despite having them enabled on her phone, which was in her back pocket.

Kincaid said, “had no clue…. (the situation was) very alarming because we were all out, my daughter, my two grandchildren and myself were out here putting up the last shutter.”

Wellington Town Manager Jim Barnes wanted to know why, after several residents also complained on social media. “We’ve posed that question to the National Weather Service to try and make a determination as to what can we do to make sure these alerts are heard,” Barnes said.

WPTV called the National Weather Service’s headquarters to inquire about the issue. By phone, a spokesperson told Bohman that the agency did its job, issuing warnings before tornadoes touched down.

Dr. Tal Lavian, a nationally known expert on wireless communications systems said, “There can be multiple causes for this situation.”

Lavian, who is based in California, said some cellphones are too outdates to receive these alerts. In other cases, Lavian said alerts may not make it to cellphones if wireless phone towers lose power or have damaged eqipment.

Lavian said in rural areas- in advance of an oncoming hurricane – cell service could starin a tower’s capacity, especially when people make video calls.

He said that video calls like FaceTime or Zoom use 100 or more times of data of a regular wireless phone call.

“Everybody wants to send the messages to the kids, friends, neighbors. Everyone wants to be on video conference.”- Lavian said.

And we also know people who complained of receiving too many emergency alerts have the option to turn those alerts off in their settings.

But when WPTV asked Kincaid to show me her phone, Bohman could see that these alerts were turned on. “Amber Alerts, emergency alerts, public safety alerts,” she noted as she wanted to know why she didn’t receive an alert at such a critical time.