WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- The leaders of the Sept. 11 commission say people died in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina because the panel's recommendations were not implemented.
Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean told the Christian Science Monitor two lessons from Sept. 11 were obviously not learned -- who is in charge on the federal level during emergencies and every state must have a command-and-control plan for disasters.
The response on all levels of government has been rapped in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated much of the U.S. Gulf Coast last month. Several hundred people are known to have died because of the storm.
"A number of our recommendations were in the area of emergency preparedness," Kean said during a meeting with Monitor editors. "Many of those recommendations have not been implemented. We believe had they been implemented that the tragedy might have been less serve in term of human lives."
