NW Missouri Times

More than 50 students and emergency professionals gathered at the Mozingo Outdoor Education Recreation Area (MOERA) this weekend for the 13th annual Missouri Hope disaster simulation, hosted by Northwest Missouri State University. The exercise simulated a tornado striking the fictional Redden Village, providing participants with hands-on experience in search-and-rescue operations, medical triage, and crisis management.

Participants rotated through different training scenarios that included assessing traumatic injuries, conducting evacuations from challenging terrains like cliffs and rivers, and working in an emergency operations center to make decisions about resource allocation. According to Travis Surprise, an instructor of emergency and disaster management at Northwest, “They’ve got to coordinate helicopters, get with the highway patrol and block off streets. Everybody gets that aha moment, and they understand when they move to the profession; they understand exactly what’s happening on the other side.”

Students from several institutions took part in this year’s event, including those from Northwest Missouri State University—where participation is mandatory for emergency and disaster management majors—as well as students from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Northern Oklahoma College, University at Albany (New York), Paul Smith’s College (New York), and The Citadel in South Carolina.

Emergency workers were supported by staff members and experts from regional partner agencies such as Maryville Public Safety, Nodaway and Buchanan County Emergency Management, Nodaway County Ambulance District, American Red Cross, and Federal Emergency Management Agency. Volunteers acted as disaster victims using moulage makeup to simulate realistic injuries.

“Our goal out here is to not only train the nurses on medical skills in the field but to train our emergency managers on what it looks like to hit some of these environments,” Surprise said.

The simulation began with response teams assembling near Redden Village before being dispatched into a scene scattered with overturned vehicles and debris. Teams assessed victims’ injuries—ranging from electrical burns to impalements—and tagged them for further treatment or transport. Some victims were taken to a field hospital set up onsite; others were determined beyond help.

Jackie McDonald, a student at UMKC studying biology with an emphasis on rural medicine, described her experience: “It’s kind of difficult because you don’t know what to do when there’s someone who’s bleeding in the neck and someone else is screaming at you at the same time. So it’s really good to get that really submerged experience where you can decide on the clock what to do.”

Colby Kusinitz, a professional firefighter and EMT from New York who graduated from Utica College in 2023, noted: “Even I learned something here, and there’s not another program that I’m aware of that gives students the opportunity to do high-fidelity disaster exercise.”

Missouri Hope is sponsored each fall by Northwest Missouri State University’s non-profit organization dedicated to immersive training experiences for disaster response and humanitarian relief fields. MOERA itself spans 320 acres at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park east of Maryville on Highway 46. The facility offers various outdoor education resources including challenge courses, water activities such as canoeing and kayaking, trap shooting ranges, archery areas, and outdoor research spaces.