An emergency alert system includes an emergency alert gateway configured for receiving an emergency alert message, for categorizing the emergency alert message, and for determining a subscriber base to receive the emergency alert message, a data base in communication with the emergency alert gateway; and an emergency alert server configured to distribute the emergency alert message to the subscriber base. A method of distributing emergency alert messages includes receiving an emergency alert message, determining whether the emergency alert message is one of at least three categories of alert messages, selecting a subscriber base based on the determining step and distributing the emergency alert message to the selected subscriber base.