A rain soaked catastrophe for desperate quake victims

Torrential downpours today threatened to cause crucial delays in quake relief efforts in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, where only a fraction of the tents needed for an estimated 2.3 million people left homeless have been provided as winter nears.

In the town of Bagh, one of the areas worst hit by October 8’s massive 7.6-magnitude quake, heavy rains began falling overnight. Relief workers have not been able to provide enough temporary shelter for town residents, let alone the refugees that have streamed in from the mountains seeking aid.

Only 18,000 tents have been distributed so far in the entire region, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said yesterday. The country’s relief commissioner, Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmad Khan, said earlier that 100,000 were needed.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that the death toll from the earthquake had risen sharply to 38,000, with 62,000 others injured, and warned that the numbers could jump still higher as relief teams reach more villages in the endless folds of the Himalayan mountains.

A 13-member team of doctors from the US planned to fly to the affected area from Lahore today, but it was unclear whether they would be delayed by the weather, state news agency APP reported. The team, including Pakistani doctors practising in the US, was bringing tents, medicine and hospital equipment.

With temperatures down to 8 degrees Celsius (46 degrees F), the hard-hit town of Balakot became a rain-soaked nightmare for victims streaming in from nearby villages seeking help from aid groups.

Mohammed Qassim, 25, took shelter from the rain under the corrugated roof of a collapsed building.

He was searching desperately for a tent to keep his five children, as well as the families of his two brothers, reasonably warm.

“For the sake of God, please give me one tent so that three families can live,” he recalled telling aid groups, most of which appear to have run completely out of tents. ”They said no.” He’s hoping to at least get plastic sheets.

Prime Minister Aziz made it clear that shelter was now the priority.

“We need tents, tents, tents and prefab housing,” he told reporters.

Aziz also said officials were planning an international donors’ conference to be held within the next week in Geneva.

He estimated that rebuilding Pakistan would cost “close to five billion dollars.”

While UN officials have estimated the reconstruction would take 10 years, “we think it would be faster,” Aziz said.

The UN’s World Food Program said it had flown in 35 tons of high-energy bars, donated by Norway, to be distributed in the affected areas. The rations contain enough nutrients for one week for more than 75,000 people, and more flights were planned for next week, the agency said.

More delays could be catastrophic. UNICEF has warned that thousands of children could die from cold, malnutrition and disease.

Overnight rains also prevented troops from getting relief to the three villages still cut off in the Indian-controlled portion of the divided Kashmir region, where some 1,350 people have died, officials said.

Indian army soldiers on foot were trying to reach Taad, Shararat and Vayu - all at least 10,000 feet up in the Himalayas – said V.V. Vyas, a top provincial official overseeing relief work.