This is taken from the FEMA website, and goes directly to what Nagin and Blanco is yelling about.  Pay attention to the bolded part.  This is not a secret document, and anyone can take the course.

Preparedness is critical to emergency management. Preparedness involves all of the actions required to establish and sustain the level of capability necessary to execute a wide range of incident management operations.

Preparedness is implemented through a continual cycle of planning, training and equipping, exercising, and evaluating and taking action to correct and mitigate.

A major objective of preparedness is to ensure mission integration and interoperability in response to emergent crises across functional and jurisdictional lines. Preparedness also includes efforts to coordinate between public and private organizations.

Preparedness is the responsibility of individual jurisdictions, which coordinate their activities among all preparedness stakeholders. Each level of government is responsible for its preparedness.

NIMS provides tools to help ensure and enhance preparedness. These tools include: preparedness organizations and programs that provide or establish processes for planning, training, and exercising; personnel qualification and certification; equipment certification; mutual aid; and publication management.

National-level preparedness standards related to NIMS will be maintained and managed through a multijurisdictional, multidiscipline center, using a collaborative process at the NIMS Integration Center.

Using NIMS as a basis, all preparedness stakeholders will be able to attain and sustain the level of readiness necessary to respond to the range of domestic incidents facing America today.

Spinners start your engines.