The emergency management community has a need for timely and accurate spatial data to support strategy and factual planning at an incident. GIS mapping has already been used in all-risk emergency management applications such as determining emergency boundaries, cost apportionment, and long-range planning. In the future, the applications will transition into an operation roll to support strategic decisions. Mapping for emergencies presents unique challenges that are currently being addressed, but solutions still do not exist. Lack of equipment caches, data caches, and trained personnel are just a few of the challenges. This presentation will discuss past emergency mapping assignments, challenges that arose, and the short-term solutions.