SAN DIEGO -- Seven months after the devastating October firestorms, San Diego County's grand jury has announced it agrees with the observations of many North County residents and officials -- that the county's emergency operations center did a poor job of disseminating information about the disaster to the public.

The 14-page report released Tuesday also said the grand jury determined that the federal Emergency Alert System was an inadequate tool to warn the public about catastrophes such as the wildfires, and urged county supervisors to look for new warning systems such as the "reverse 9-1-1" system the board voted to buy in March.

County Supervisor Greg Cox said Wednesday that there was "nothing surprising" in the grand jury report and that county and fire officials were already working on some of the recommendations it proposed.

Grand jury foreman Thomas McCarthy said it was OK if the jury came to the same conclusions that others reached before.

"We're 19 citizens who are not experts necessarily in fighting fires," he said. "We are a jury, and we cull through everything we can learn about these issues and hopefully our report will be helpful in making the necessary actions to improve the county's emergency operations center."

The grand jury is a body of 19 citizens, nominated by Superior Court judges to serve for a single year, from June through July, and charged with investigating matters of civil concern.

McCarthy said the grand jury's recommendations were not binding, but that county supervisors were required to respond to them within 60 to 90 days.

The report said the jury, through interviews and documents, concluded that officials manning the county's emergency operations center could not get timely information to give to the public during the fires.

Fire crews in the field were overwhelmed, the report said, and too busy to respond to the center and did not have a communications chain linked to the center.

As a result, the report said, "citizens faced frustration many times because they could not get the information they needed."

County leaders, including Cox, complained for months after the fires that California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials in charge of coordinating the battle against the blazes did not show up at their emergency center, and that the center could not get timely information.

CDF officials said they were consumed with fighting the fire, and that they had their own operations center and were not required to be at the county's center.

State disaster officials recognize the county's Kearny Mesa center as the "nerve center" to coordinate response and disseminate information to the public during countywide catastrophes.

Cox and CDF Chief Jim Barta said Wednesday that the county and the state fire agency were working together on plans to improve communications during future disasters, a plan that would include having fire officials at the county's center.

Grand jury findings included recommendations to require all local agencies to have a representative at the county command center in future disasters.

Cox also said the county is working to create a "joint information center" that would be next to the county command center. There, county officials could keep media -- local television, radio and newspaper reporters -- briefed on the latest information during fires.

Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com