Storm

The death toll from the most recent outbreak of tornadoes in the Midwest climbed to two on Monday morning as parts of four states braced for the possibility of more storms by nightfall. An official at the Oklahoma state medical examiner's office said that two people were killed in Shawnee when a tornado roared through a mobile home park in the central part of the state. Several tornadoes struck the area and one devastated the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park on Sunday. Office spokeswoman Amy Elliot identified the two confirmed dead as Glen Irish, 79, and Billy Hutchinson, 76. Irish appears to have been a resident of the mobile home park and Hutchinson was killed in a car, she said.

A few hours after a massive tornado tore through the Oklahoma City area, ravaging neighborhoods and two elementary schools and killing at least 51 people, Edie Cordray sent an urgent message to members of her church in nearby Norman. "Please pray for my best friend," she wrote. The friend, Becky Jo Evans, teaches first grade at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which took a direct hit. Evans and her students were missing, Cordray wrote. PHOTOS: Tornadoes hit Oklahoma Cordray was at her church, where she works as a day-care teacher, when the tornado hit with 200-mph winds.

Tornado Alley. It's where I used to call home. And watching the massive twister rip through Moore, Okla., on Monday brought back a flood of memories. I'm a Californian now, but I spent my childhood and young adult years in the Midwest: Texas and Nebraska mostly. So do I know about tornadoes? Of course. You don't grow up in Tornado Alley and not know tornadoes. Many people here tell me they prefer our relatively rare earthquakes to the Midwest's frequent storms. But not me. Yes, as we saw Monday, tornadoes can be deadly.

Re "501(c)(4)s are the real IRS scandal," Column, May 15 Michael Hiltzik is right. The IRS should put every tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organization under a microscope. Vague tax rules, the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and the absurd cost of political campaigns create a perfect storm of opportunity for would-be kingmakers. Being partisan myself, when I saw that key words being used to flag suspect organizations included "tea party" and "patriot," I thought, "Well, yes, and the problem is?"

On the limb of a barren tree in the tornado-devastated north Texas community of Rancho Brazos, an American flag flaps in the wind - placed there by a firefighter. "It's symbolic of, 'We're here, we're going to rebuild,'" said Sgt. Nathan Stringer, a Hood County sheriff's spokesman. The tornado has "broken homes, but it hasn't broken our will," he said. A fierce series of twisters tore through the northern part of the state Wednesday, killing six people, injuring 53, leaving scores of damaged and destroyed houses and many people homeless.

NEW DELHI - At least 58 people were missing and feared dead Tuesday after a boat capsized off Myanmar while residents tried to flee an approaching cyclone, United Nations officials said. The boat was carrying about 100 Rohingya Muslims, many of whom lived in camps in low-lying areas to escape Buddhist-Muslim violence, officials said. The boat apparently ran into rocks off Pauktaw township in the western state Rakhine and sank late Monday as people were evacuating, said Aye Win, spokesman for the U.N. Information Center in Myanmar, based on preliminary information.

As rain falls on much of Los Angeles, the county's top health officer is warning beach-goers to beware of surfing, swimming "and playing in ocean waters around discharging storm drains, creeks and rivers. " The rain advisory is in effect for all c ounty beaches until Thursday at 7:30 a.m. but excludes beach areas apart from discharging storm drains, rivers and creeks.  “Fortunately, discharging storm drains, creeks, and rivers only comprises a small portion of the beach, and therefore, anybody who wants to go to the beach will be able to enjoy their outing,” Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding said in a news release Monday.

More than a half-inch of rain fell in communities across Los Angeles County on Monday as a late-season storm moved across the region. The wet weather is the result of a low-pressure system off the California coast. The system is expected to bring cooler temperatures and showery and windy conditions at least through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. By Monday evening, downtown Los Angeles and Los Angeles International Airport each recorded 0.70 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service.  In the San Fernando Valley, Northridge topped out with 0.68 inches of rain.

For those of us up late at night concerned about Halle Berry's high-risk pregnancy at age 46, fear not. It appears that the pregnancy, at the very least, will not affect her role in the upcoming "X-Men" film. As if that makes anything any better. Director Bryan Singer teased fans with Berry's return to the franchise in a tweeted photo of the Oscar-winning actress smiling in her all-black costume. Berry confirmed her appearance in "X-Men: Days of Future Past" on "The Tonight Show" in March, and she'll reprise her role as the weather-manipulating mutant Storm.

Storm Thorgerson Creator of album art for Pink Floyd, Zeppelin Storm Thorgerson, 69, an English graphic designer whose eye-popping album art for Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin encapsulated the spirit of 1970s psychedelia, died Thursday. In a statement from London, his family gave few details but said that the artist, who suffered a stroke in 2003, had cancer. Thorgerson, whose art tended toward the unsettling or the bizarre, was best known for his surreal Pink Floyd covers, which guitarist David Gilmour said had long been "an inseparable part of our work.