New Orleans evacuation plan has holes

New Orleans' plan to evacuate its residents in the event of a major hurricane strike this summer may not be as complete as city officials made it sound last week when they unveiled the plan, according to a CNN review.

Mayor Ray Nagin and Terry Ebbert, director of the city's Homeland Security Department, released a plan that uses trains, planes and buses to get people out of town -- a plan Nagin told CNN is good to go.

"The fundamentals of this plan basically is to get as many people out pre-event, and right after the event," he said.

CNN took a closer look at those fundamentals and found some of them lacking, evoking a scenario reminiscent of the chaos when Hurricane Katrina hit the city last September and the finger-pointing afterward.

For one, the plan to use Amtrak trains to evacuate the sick and elderly has not been completed with the rail operator. However, Amtrak officials said they are working on a memorandum of understanding with the city.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said the plan has another problem -- not enough doctors to put on board those trains.

Department officials said the state would not be able to spare any doctors for the evacuation trains.

The plan calls for airlines to hold their planes in New Orleans long enough to evacuate tourists -- a plan the Transportation Security Administration said is under discussion but not completed. No airlines have agreed to it.