"We can activate an email list of a couple million people who want to give back," Obama told reporters after attending church in Lima, Ohio.

"I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there if it becomes necessary."

The deadly storm is on course to slam into the US Gulf Coast near New Orleans early Monday, almost exactly three years to the day after Hurricane Katrina obliterated whole areas of the city, leaving some 1,800 people dead across the region.

Obama said was planning to "stay clear of the area until things have settled down and then we'll probably try to figure out how we can be as helpful as possible."

Asked whether rival John McCain's visit to Mississippi Sunday was appropriate, Obama said concern about deadly storm is not a partisan issue.

"The thing that I always am concerned about in the middle of a storm is whether we're drawing resources away from folks on the ground because the Secret Service and various security requirements sometimes it pulls police, fire and other departments away from concentrating on the job," Obama said.

"I'm assuming that where he went that wasn't an issue."

Obama said it appears the storm preparations were well coordinated and that "we all learned from the terrible lesson that we saw after Katrina and Rita."

"We just hope that by the time this storm hits land that it has dissipated somewhat. Right now that doesn't appear to be the case."

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