A tornado warning, two hours too late. The automated emergency call went out to residents in Teller County on Saturday after a tornado touched down in the area.

The El Paso Teller County 9-1-1 Authority says Saturday their system seemed to function just fine. The problem was simply too many people to call.

"About 5:26 we got a phone call from Woodland Park Police, an (emergency notification) call," said Carl Bandy, a Woodland Park resident.

Problem was, Bandy's call came two hours too late and the tornado was long gone.

"They warned us of a tornado warning that expired at 3:25," Bandy said.

And He wasn't the only Teller County resident to be notified of the tornado warning hours after the fact. Troy Pring, Training Coordinator at El Paso Teller County 9-1-1 says they've been receiving complaints all day.

"We can only reach out to a certain number of people in a certain amount of time," Pring said.

Which is why on Saturday, some got the call too late.

"We only have the capacity of utilizing 48 phones at one time for up to a one minute message," said Pring.

That means on average, they can call about 2400 to 2800 people every hour. Woodland Park Police say on Saturday they asked the system to notify the entire county.

"It's not for weather situations," Pring said.

He says the automated emergency call system is designed for an eminent danger situation that is happening in one place.

"It's more for a situation where we have a center point that's not moving," said Pring.

Severe weather, like Saturday's tornado is just too unpredictable.

For more information on the automated system or to add you cell phone to the call list, just click on the link below.

"Editor's Note: The term "emergency notification call" has been substituted for "reverse 9-1-1" in the story. REVERSE 911 is the registered trademark of Plant Equipment Inc."