Breaking down emergency alerts sent to your phone

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Wireless Emergency Alerts are messages that are sent to your phone by authorized government agencies, like the National Weather Center, and local public safety departments.

The alerts often are Amber alerts, endangered missing juvenile, blue alerts, silver alerts, and Kasey alerts. They can even be tornadoes, a severe thunderstorm, or flash flooding.

On Thursday, all 77 counties in Oklahoma received a Missing Endangered Juvenile alert.

14-year-old Isabella Rodriguez was missing, and law enforcement was concerned for her safety.

News 4 wanted to find out why other Endangered Missing Advisories, Kasey alerts, or Silver alerts don't get the same push alert on phones.

"It's kind of a delicate balance here," said Sarah Stewart, Department of Public Safety.

Stewart says each alert has to meet different criteria before it's sent to the public.

"It can be the immediacy of danger that we feel, you know, their condition, how much information we have," said Stewart.

And they don't sound those alerts in every case for a specific reason.

"We don't want people to become numb to these and not pay attention to them, so we reserve them for the most extreme cases," said Stewart.

They say your attention could help save a life.

"I just say put yourself in the shoes of the person whose loved one is missing," said Stewart.

It's not just about the missing people. Authorities hope you won't disable these alerts on your phone because you could also miss a vital weather message.

"You may be trying to turn off a missing person alert or an Amber Alert, but inadvertently, you're also deactivating tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings, flash flood warnings," said Rick Smith, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Center. "You could miss what could be the most important warning of your life."