Several San Mateo County agencies heard concerns from panicked community members on Thursday after the sirens did not go off when a tsunami warning was issued two weeks ago.
Community members said they expected to hear a siren ring after receiving an alert on their phones.
"We were getting alerts on our phone, which I really appreciated, but we're supposed to hear a siren," said Ellen Koland of El Granada. "Why didn't that go off?"
County officials said sirens were not sounded because doing so would have caused panic, and crews were waiting for more information.
"We were getting more information that as time went on, there was not a wave, they could not verify it, we were still waiting, and we had enough time to sound the sirens if we needed to," said Shruti Dhapodkar, director of Emergency Management a San Mateo County.
However, Peter Deane of Moss Beach said the tsunami alert, telling residents to move to higher ground, had already caused panic.
"I was mostly concerned about understanding why some of the messages were so confusing, and why they were exaggerated beyond the reality," Deane said.
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After the alert was issued, traffic along Highway 1 was stretched for miles, with people trying to get to higher ground.
Supervisor Ray Mueller said the county will work on improvement.
"What we can do is put actually physical infrastructure out along the coast so that people can say, 'I'm in zone x, zone y, and the information from the county can say move from this zone to this zone if you're in these zones you're safe,'" Mueller said.
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Officials said they are working on building a map on a county website people can access.
