Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston met with officials

Travolta, an experienced pilot, flew to Baton Rouge with his actress wife Kelly Preston before touring New Orleans.

He is among celebrities who have travelled to the area to offer help, including Oprah Winfrey and Sean Penn.

Author John Grisham, who lives in the stricken state of Mississippi, has donated $5m (£2.7m) to the aid effort.

As well as delivering food supplies, Travolta flew in 400 doses of tetanus vaccines to be given to rescuers, who he and his wife met on the trip.

Travolta said: "What we've seen in the shelters is wonderful, because people are being taken care of.

"What we've seen in the city is disastrous."

Travolta said he was working with chat show host Winfrey to bring in more aid to the more than one million people affected by the natural disaster.

Winfrey travelled to the Astrodome in Houston having already visited New Orleans.

Speaking with the refugees in the sports stadium she said she had witnessed the "inhumane" and "embarrassing" conditions they were forced to live in.

She said she would be presenting her show live from the area to ensure their stories would be told.

Oscar-winner Sean Penn, a staunch opponent of President George Bush, visited New Orleans on Sunday to help in the search for survivors.

He told GMTV he felt compelled to help because of what he perceived as a lack of support for the victims by authorities.

"There are people that are dying right now and I mean babies and old people and everybody in between - they're dying," he said.

"There are people dying and (the US government is) not putting the boats in the water, I think that's criminal negligence.

"I don't think anybody ever anticipated the criminal negligence of the Bush administration in this situation."

His rescue effort was hampered when his small boat began taking on water, which had to be bailed out.