COLUMBIA, Mo. – Emergency management officials from across Missouri are meeting at an annual conference to discuss lessons learned from a host of in-state disasters that occurred so far this year. They are also planning for future events, including the FIFA World Cup.
From widespread winter storms to over 100 tornadoes alone, safety officials from all corners of the state have been tested in 2025 by some of Mother Nature’s worst.
”We had lots of wildfires, we had flooding going on as well as tornadoes,” Terry Cassil, deputy director of the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, said. “There’s a lot of lessons learned from those communities that went through those things.”
With seismic and atmospheric threats always lurking, the job of an emergency manager is 24-7.
“With emergency management, everything is ever changing,” Larry Woods, the emergency management director for the city of Springfield as well as Greene County, said. “Every day you walk through the door and you don’t know what you’re going to end up getting hit with.”
Then there are unnatural disasters.
“Some of these disasters are manmade,” Dr. Adrian Petrescu, the director of the Security Sciences Institute, a new academic unity at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, said. “There can be attackers who don’t have our best interests at heart.”
One emerging issue within public safety is vulnerabilities associated with technology, including artificial intelligence.
“We’re able to use AI to get information at a much faster rate,” Cassil said. “But AI can be used in a negative way also.”
Another safety-centered topic being discussed at the annual Missouri Emergency Management Conference: next year’s FIFA World Cup matches being played in Kansas City.
“The security concerns are just the amount of people, the extra people we’re going to have coming into the state,” Cassil said.
One issue Cassil pointed to would be a sudden influx of non-English-speaking fans who aren’t familiar with Missouri.
“We don’t know what teams we’re getting yet in the base camps,” said Cassil of the uncertainties planners are having to navigate through.
“So we don’t know what language they speak and, you know, their cultures,” he said of the TBA teams. “That’s a big barrier for us.”
Want more insights? Join Working Title - our career elevating newsletter and get the future of work delivered weekly.
