{"id":380360,"date":"2026-08-25T04:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T04:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/380360\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T04:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T04:44:08","slug":"why-some-port-st-lucie-residents-didnt-get-a-tornado-warning-until-after-it-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/380360\/","title":{"rendered":"Why some Port St. Lucie residents didn\u2019t get a tornado warning until after it hit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12)  \u2014 Some residents say their phones didn\u2019t alert them until after a tornado had already hit Sunday evening.<\/p>\n<p>The confirmed EF-0 tornado touched down in Port St. Lucie just after 6 p.m., bringing winds of up to 75 mph and damaging several homes.<\/p>\n<p>Carol Cadotte, who lives in Port St. Lucie, said she quickly went inside her home after hearing a strange noise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just felt like a suction and a really strange noise,\u201d Cadotte said.<\/p>\n<p>The storm peeled roofs from homes, scattered debris across yards and damaged fences, boats and a pool gazebo.<\/p>\n<p>The National Weather Service says the tornado first touched down around 6:10 p.m. and traveled a little more than two miles over roughly 15 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>It then moved across the St. Lucie River, where it became a waterspout, before moving back onto land around 6:20 p.m. near the Bay St. Lucie community.<\/p>\n<p>The tornado warning wasn\u2019t issued until 6:28 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>See also:<a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/florida\/fire-crews-contain-fort-pierce-structure-blaze-before-it-spreads-to-mobile-homes-florida-news-florida-fire-local-news-local-fire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Fire crews contain Fort Pierce structure blaze before it spreads to mobile homes<\/a><\/p>\n<p>That means the warning came about 18 minutes after the tornado first touched down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur phones went off and we looked at each other like, you\u2019re kidding me, right?\u201d Cadotte said. \u201cTwenty minutes later, that\u2019s something\u2019s wrong with that picture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Why was the warning delayed?<\/p>\n<p>CBS12 News StormTrac Chief Meteorologist Greg Rule says radar limitations made it difficult for forecasters to immediately identify a tornado threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBasically the radar beam was flying up and over the storm system, so it didn\u2019t really have a clear defined rotation,\u201d Rule said. \u201cWhen we were looking at it on radar yesterday, it didn\u2019t scream out, \u2018Hey, this has potential for a tornado.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s part of what makes tornadoes so difficult to predict.<\/p>\n<p>They can form quickly, and sometimes the warning signs aren\u2019t immediately obvious on radar.<\/p>\n<p>There are ways to make sure you know when severe weather is moving in. <\/p>\n<p>Because tornadoes can develop rapidly, meteorologists say residents should not rely on just one source for severe weather information.<\/p>\n<p>Rule recommends keeping Wireless Emergency Alerts turned on through your phone.<\/p>\n<p>He also recommends having a NOAA Weather Radio programmed for your county and downloading the CBS12 Weather app for additional weather information and alerts.<\/p>\n<p>And if a tornado warning is issued for your area, don\u2019t wait to see the tornado before taking action. Get inside and take shelter immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Some residents say their phones didn\u2019t alert them until after a tornado&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-380360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}