Officials said Saturday's false alert of a missile strike in Hawaii, which went uncorrected for nearly 40 minutes, was caused by a state worker twice pressing the wrong button.
The message went out on the Wireless Emergency Alert System.
Most phones come preprogrammed to receive emergency alerts and Amber Alerts, although the user has the option of turning them off.
"Those can go everywhere, to everyone within cell tower range, on their mobile device," said Lynne Miller, of King County Emergency Management.
She said wireless emergency alerts are intended for use in major catastrophes, such as providing important information after an earthquake or dam collapse.
She said there are protocols to prevent false alarms.
"We're very judicious about our process and there's not only the message-building, there's an approval process and then a special code to actually send the message," Miller said.
State emergency managers can also send text alerts.
State officials say there are no pre-scripted messages about incoming ballistic missiles; someone would have to type out the message and get approval to send it.
There's another type of text system that you can sign up for online.
Alert King County and Alert Seattle provide more localized emergency information.
An example might be an alert about a missing child or vulnerable adult within a couple miles of your home.
"They can be very much geotargeted for a specific impact area so we don't blast everybody with a message that might cause more confusion than help," Miller said.
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Miller said nearly 20,000 people have signed up so far for Alert King County.
She urges people to go online and create a profile that includes home and work address information, so you'll receive the most relevant messages.
For more information on Alert King County, visit kingcounty.gov/alert.
For more information on Alert Seattle, visit alert.seattle.gov.
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