Where do severe weather alerts come from?

Does anyone know where the sever weather alerts come from that are sent? The first year I had my phone I received one for my area Lake Leelanau. Michigan and that is the only one I've received. I started with an Apple iphone 5 and now have a 6. Both phones have the severe alerts turned on. The 1st alert I received was while I was at work which was 7 miles from my home which is where the alert was for. Yesterday we had a severe Thunderstorm and possible Tornado over my town and I didn't receive anything. I faintly heard a siren in the area but couldn't tell what it was for sure only the general direction (which wasn't the direction of the Tornado siren). I found out today that it was much worse than that. Anyone know how to address this issue?

Accepted answers

Verizon_Support

BFBF

I’m glad to hear you are ok. We have been experiencing severe weather here too. Wireless Emergency Alerts are sent to cell sites providing wireless service to very specific areas. Your device may have been receiving service in a different area, or even from an adjacent area cell site, which wasn't targeted by the alert.

Most WEA alerts will be re-broadcast several times to reach the maximum number of devices in the targeted area. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the agency that distributes these Wireless Emergency Alerts. Verizon Wireless does not determine the content of the alerts, when the alerts are sent, where the alerts are sent or which device receives them.

ChristopherM_VZW
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Verizon_Support

BFBF

Thanks for responding so quickly Chris, are the alerts only sent through cell reception? What I mean is my reception at my home is really bad (topographical issues I think) I have signal at the end of the drive way and I get reception in the house that fluxes between no service to 1 bar to 3 lte depending on how the wind blows (no pun) (Verizon's map shows my home to be in the 4 lte area). Wifi works fine through the router. There are several private antennas in the village (of which I'm not connected to any) and the towers are 3 miles on either side of me. If FEMA is sending multiple broadcasts I should have received at least 1. Not to mention last year while I was at work there was a severe weather storm that went through my area, didn't know that until I got home and saw the damage. Two years ago when that happened I received that 1st message at work for my home with no problem, but none since. What would be nice would be to have FEMA (or someone) send a text out to a targeted area and have people respond and have their location shown so the Emergency Management team could see what fixes are needed to hit a larger audience AND hit any WiFi routers in that location with the same for individuals such as myself that only have Wifi (until Verizon opens that up to cell phone usage). They would be overwhelmed with responses but it would be worth the effort I think.

Loquat

I've read that they're sent via radio broadcast to mobile devices so having cellular connectivity isn't needed. With that being said, I've had severe weather come through my area and have received nothing. I don't know what method they use to determine who gets the alert and when...but I've received them before...but mostly when areas far away from me are experiencing bad weather...can't recall ever getting an alert when bad weather is hitting close to home...

BFBF

Thanks for that update Loquat, I just asked Siri on my phone what my location is and she had the right street but wrong city (it used to be correct). That could be part of my problem while I'm at home but not the issue of not receiving anymore alerts for my home like the first one I received which was a flood alert, since I'm not sure where she's pulling the information from I don't know where to go for the fix.