Balakot, Pakistan – The death toll from Pakistan’s earthquake rose sharply to an estimated 38,000 Saturday, with the president warning that numbers could jump still higher as relief teams reach more villages in the endless folds of the Himalayan mountains.
One relief helicopter crashed late Saturday in stormy weather near Bagh, killing all six people aboard, a senior army official said today.
Throughout the region, homeless survivors searched desperately for blankets and tents to brace against temperatures that dropped to 44 degrees and the torrential rains.
The suddenly frigid weather in some hard-hit areas was an ominous sign that winter was fast approaching – with thousands of villagers still cut off from any aid whatsoever a week after the magnitude 7.6 quake hit the region.
Heavy rain began falling early Saturday in many stricken towns, and snow fell in the surrounding mountains, disrupting efforts to help an estimated 2 million people still lacking shelter. Only 18,000 tents have been distributed so far to house them, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Saturday.
With temperatures dropping amid rainy weather that continued past sunrise today, the hard-hit town of Bagh became a rain-soaked nightmare for victims streaming in from nearby villages seeking help from aid groups.
The transport helicopter that crashed near the area was returning home after dropping off relief workers, and all those killed were military personnel, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak with reporters. The cause was not immediately known.
On Saturday in Balakot 25-year-old Mohammed Qassim 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.
“We distributed 1,000 tents yesterday, but we have run out,” said Farhi Butt, who partly owns a telecommunication company that had rushed aid to Balakot.
Helicopter relief flights – which have been ferrying supplies into the quake zone and ferrying out the injured – were halted for about 90 minutes Saturday morning before resuming, except to Balakot, where the weather was particularly bad.
That left hundreds of injured, cold and terrified people waiting by the helipad, hoping for the weather to clear.
Saturday, the prime minister made it clear that shelter was now the priority.
“We need tents, tents, tents and prefab housing,” Aziz told reporters.
Officials say 200,000 houses were destroyed by the quake.
