Aid finally reaches quake survivors

Eight-year-old Beenish (R), who lost her one hand after being injured in the last week's earthquake in Muzaffarabad, looks on as another injured child rests on his father's lap at a special camp for young quake victims in Islamabad yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

The sun shone after two days of heavy rain that grounded flights, letting dozens of choppers scour the mountains where aid workers warn thousands could die within days without food, tents and blankets.

"The main thing that has changed in the last 24 hours is that it seems to be more under control, as far as this situation can be," said Alain Pasche, the UN coordination chief in Pakistani Kashmir's ravaged capital of Muzaffarabad.

But the sometimes risky aid missions also brought more harrowing tales of death and destruction. The leader of Pakistani Kashmir put the toll from South Asia's disaster at more than 54,000, a drastic rise from the 40,000 given by the central government.

"I'm used to working in war zones and this reminds me of a war zone," said Zia Alvi, a doctor with British-based Doctors Overseas Charity.

Major Farooq Nasir, the army spokesman in Muzaffarabad, said the clear skies would permit around 80 air sorties on Monday, one of the highest since the 7.6 Richter-scale earthquake tore apart entire villages on October 8.

"We are pushing into far-flung locations so soldiers are able to carry goods up in the mountain," he said. A road from Muzaffarabad to the town of Ghari Dupatta, which had been supplied only by air, would soon be reopened, Nasir said.

Balakot, a town razed to the ground northwest of Muzaffarabad, received its first trucks Monday from the UN World Food Program bringing in badly needed wheat and beans for 700 people.

But in a sign of how much relief work remains to be done, Mia Turner, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program, said that about 600 of the 900 villages in the Balakot area remain inaccessible.

"We have no food, no tents, no blankets. We sleep in the open at night," said Zahoor Ahmed, 34, a resident of the Kashmiri town of Dhani which is now no more than a few tents made from blankets and plastic. "We are suffering."

And the clear skies also brought misery of a different sort to residents, with temperatures dropping overnight to near freezing point in Balakot and mountain villages in Kashmir.