Agencies scramble to deliver aid

A Pakistani Kashmir mother holds her injured daughter at US army field medical camp in Muzffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir yesterday. The United States said on Monday it would nearly double its military forces in earthquake relief efforts in Pakistan to 1,000 as Washington steps up aid to its "war on terror" ally reeling from the deadly disaster.. PHOTO: AFP

With winter approaching and rain predicted in coming days, authorities were racing against time to reach thousands of people cut off by the deadly Oct. 8 quake.

Pakistan meteorological department officials said winter was expected in around three weeks, leaving army engineers and aid workers racing to clear distribution lines, reopen roads and provide shelter for hundreds of thousands of homeless.

"There is a three-week window of opportunity to deliver assistance to mountainous areas before the first snowfall," the United Nations humanitarian office said in a statement.

Rain was also expected later on Tuesday and into Wednesday, creating more misery for quake survivors and likely grounding relief helicopters.

"It is a weak spell and weather is expected to remain clear for the rest of the week," senior meteorologist Mohammad Hanif told Reuters.

Army engineers are working around the clock to reopen roads destroyed in the quake, which killed at least 53,000 people and left more than 75,000 seriously injured.

Only when the roads are rebuilt -- and in some cases this could take weeks -- can aid be delivered in sufficient quantities to an estimated 2,000 still inaccessible villages to allow hundreds of thousands of people to survive the rapidly approaching winter.

The fleet of aid helicopters, although growing, cannot reach them all, or deliver enough supplies to the worst-hit areas of Pakistani Kashmir and adjacent North West Frontier Province.

In Muzaffarabad, officials were hoping to open the first tented school in a camp for homeless quake survivors as residents tried to get on with their lives.

A US army field hospital, popularised by the hit Vietnam war-era movie and television series M*A*S*H, opened for business in the devastated city on Tuesday -- part of a force of more than 1,000 American service people that will operate in Pakistan.