Bitter Cold, Snow Blocking Relief Supplies in Kashmir

MIRA TANOLIAN, Pakistan, Jan. 2 -- Shivering with cold and beating the snow off their fragile tents with sticks, earthquake survivors struggled Monday to keep their children warm as the bitter winter hit Kashmir, grounding helicopter aid flights and blocking roads for the second straight day.

Dozens of tents, including ones housing a school and a mosque, collapsed under the weight of 10 inches of snow that blanketed the village of Mira Tanolian, about four miles south of Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan's portion of the disputed Himalayan region.

No one was hurt, but about 35 families had to reerect their tents or move in with other families at the settlement, which lies amid the ruins of houses destroyed by the Oct. 8 temblor that killed at least 73,000 people and left 3.5 million homeless.

"Look at me. I'm wearing just one sweater and this one shawl. It's not enough to cover myself. The children are falling sick. We were told we would get additional blankets, but they still haven't come," said a mother of five, Nasima Bibi, 45, after volunteers helped put her family's tent back up.

The Pakistan meteorological office forecast continued rain and snow for the next two days and low temperatures of 21 degrees Fahrenheit in the plains and 7 degrees Fahrenheit above 5,000 feet.

For the second straight day, helicopters from the United Nations, foreign militaries and Pakistan's army were not able to deliver winterized tents, clothes, food and other provisions in the quake zone because of poor visibility, said Maj. Farooq Nasir, an army spokesman. They were trying to move supplies by truck, but mudslides and snow have also made some roads impassable, he said.

A road to Chakothi town, on the disputed frontier between Kashmir's Pakistani- and Indian-administered sections, was blocked by a landslide about 10 miles from Muzaffarabad.

Larry Hollingworth, the U.N. deputy humanitarian coordinator, said the weather had forced 100 families to move from the mountains to a camp near Battagram town in Pakistan's North-West Frontier province on Sunday.

He said that tents were damp and that aid workers were distributing high-protein foods and warm clothes to children.

"It's what we have been fearing all along," Hollingworth said by phone from Battagram. "The winter is now with us."

According to the meteorological office, Kashmir and northwestern Pakistan have had at least two feet of snow since Saturday evening.

There were no confirmed fatalities from the cold, but staff members at a Muzaffarabad field hospital said they had treated 249 patients Sunday for cold-related illnesses, 30 percent of them with respiratory infections.

Seven of the patients had "severe chest infection," an early sign of pneumonia, said a physician, Hafiz-ur Rahman.

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