Rain and snow ground quake aid flights

Heavy rain and snow buffeted Pakistan’s earthquake-hit areas for a second day today, grounding helicopter aid flights and blocking roads as doctors reported increasing respiratory infections among survivors.

Aid workers have warned that cold weather in the Himalayan foothills, where temperatures have already fallen below freezing, may claim more lives after the October 8 magnitude 7.6 quake left about 87,000 dead and 3.5 million homeless.

Poor visibility suspended flights by helicopters from the United Nations, foreign militaries and Pakistan’s army, which have been delivering winterised tents, clothes, food and other provisions to survivors, said Maj Farooq Nasir, a Pakistani army spokesman.

“As long as the weather is bad, relief supplies will be affected because helicopters cannot fly,” he said.

He said the army will try using trucks to deliver relief goods, though mudslides and snow have made some roads impassable.

The road to the isolated, Neelum Valley, which suffered heavy quake damage, was among those closed, he said.

But he said other major roads leading to Muzaffarabad – the main city in the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir and supply centre for the quake relief operation – remained open.

The Indian-run portion of Kashmir suffered less damage. Both countries claim the entire territory, which is divided between them by a ceasefire line.

The UN estimates 2.5 million people are living in tents below 5,000 feet, while up to 400,000 others are in higher areas where it is feared that snow and rain will make it harder to reach them.

Cold rain pelted the quake zone throughout Sunday, and about 12 inches of snow fell above the 6,000ft level, said Qamar-uz Zaman Chaudhry, head of Pakistan’s Meteorological Department.

Heavy snow blanketed Muzaffarabad yesterday. Residents reported that roads leading to the higher mountains were blocked by vehicles stuck in snow.

No deaths due to the cold have so far been reported. A field hospital in Muzaffarabad said it treated 249 patients for cold-related illnesses, and that 30% of them had respiratory tract infections.

Seven of the patients had “severe chest infection”, an early sign of pneumonia, said Hafiz-ur Rahman, a doctor with the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association.

“If better conditions are not provided in the tents, there could be another disaster,” he said.

A senior World Health Organisation official, Khalif Bile, said: “We are monitoring the situation very closely and we are prepared for any contingency.”