Weather Conditions Also Worsen

Stunned survivors picked through the little that was left of their communities Sunday after tornadoes tore across the Plains and South, killing at least 22 people in three states and leaving behind a trail of destruction and stories of loss. The USA has been ravaged through mid-May by a near-record number of tornadoes that has pushed the death toll — including 47 killer twisters over the weekend — to a 10-year high. The deaths of 98 people attributed to tornadoes this year has made 2008 the deadliest year thus far for tornadoes since 1998 and the seventh deadliest since modern recordkeeping began in 1950, The Weather Channel said.

HLEGU, Burma (AP) — Burma's military rulers held a referendum Saturday on a new constitution, ignoring worldwide pleas to pay more attention to some 2 million hungry and homeless victims of a devastating cyclone. The junta is expected to secure a resounding "yes" vote for the charter, which critics say will perpetuate its 46-year-old hold on power. State TV on Saturday broadcast a video of two women singing a pop-style song with the lyrics: "Let's go vote .... with sincere thoughts for happy days." The video was apparently produced before the May 3 cyclone, but the junta has refused to alter its schedule despite the disaster that it says killed 23,335 people and left 37,019 missing. Entire villages in the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta have been submerged. International aid organizations say the death toll could climb to more than 100,000 as conditions worsen.

An estimated 1.5 million Myanmarese are on the brink of a "massive public-health catastrophe," the British charity Oxfam warned Sunday, as desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis poured out of the devastated Irrawaddy Delta into regional towns in search of water, food and other help. The country's ruling junta on Sunday raised its official tally of the dead to more than 28,000. Humanitarian experts say the toll could run much higher.