Emergency management data can be scarce and biased due to response priorities, compiling processes and time spans between event occurrence and data collection. Such limitations are heavily associated with natural and man-made disasters been the most reliable sources of information for emergency management research. This paper presents a synergic method to collect data by observing and simulating emergencies. This combined approach originated from the need to have additional experiences to support research by not uniquely relying upon real events or big scale emergency simulations, which can be too sporadic and costly. Road organizations were defined as the main case study due to their vital role in emergency response and recovery. A five-step observation method and a game-base scenario simulation were designed and assessed. To do so, it was observed seven exercises in New Zealand and conducted pilot simulations with numerous volunteers. Data collected using the proposed method, indicated promising results to model extreme event decision-making as well as potentials to generate knowledge for decision support. The method has also shown opportunities to be applied as a cost efficient emergency management training tool due to low development and implementation costs.