LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -- Officials say the county's notification system didn’t alert residents before a tornado hit the city of Tavares, because it occurred quickly.

Ralph Smith is the owner of Lake Tire & Auto on Burleigh Boulevard in Tavares.

He says he was celebrating the Fourth of July at home when he got a text from a friend.

"Someone texted that a tornado had come by, and the small tornado damaged the Fish Camp and broke a big limb on one of my trees," Smith said.  

Next door, Jim Jordan, the owner of the Fish Camp on Lake Eustis, says he was in the restaurant's kitchen when the EF-0 tornado hit.

He says he's signed up on his cell phone for the county's emergency notification system, AlertLake, but didn't get an alert.

“If there’s a tornado on the ground you need to know that and it’s in your area, and it’s on the ground. It could have been a lot worse. We have roof we just put over our patio, which protected several of the diners and one of our servers who was stuck outside," he said.

"We would not have had anybody outside or by the windows had that been the case with AlertLake," Jordan said.   

Lake County emergency management officials says AlertLake sends out automated severe weather warnings, like a tornado watch, tornado warning, a severe thunderstorm warning, and a hurricane warning.

But in this case, they say the National Weather Service didn't issue a warning or watch.

"Part of it the responsibility comes back to us as the resident because the technology worked great, but it just happened so quickly, and there wasn’t a chance for the weather service to issue that," said Thomas Carpenter, Director of the Office of Emergency Management.

Officials say there are 10,651 people who have signed up for AlertLake, but there are more than 300,000 people in the county.

It's not only used for severe weather warnings but also for public safety emergencies, like a forest fire or a missing person.

Officials say they want the public to sign up at alertlake.com, but they want the public to be aware of the daily weather, watch the sky and pay attention.

"To have all these technological devices in place, but ​when it comes down to it, we should be the best monitor," Carpenter said.

Spectrum News 13's weather experts say tornadoes can develop in a moment’s notice, especially where boundaries collide here in Central Florida.

Although a storm may not have a warning on it, any storm should be taken seriously.

When thunder roars, go indoors. Stay away from windows.

The best way to stay up to date – keep an eye on StormTracker 13 Doppler radar with Weather on the Ones​.