After Quake, A Race Against Time

Rugged Terrain Complicates Rescue Effort In Pakistan

(CBS/AP)  Rescuers struggled to reach remote, mountainous areas Sunday after Pakistan's worst-ever earthquake wiped out entire villages, buried roads in rubble and knocked out electricity and water supplies. The death toll stood at 20,000 and is expected to rise.

CBS News correspondent Richard Roth reports that in a town called Balakot, shovels, picks and desperate hands are struggling to free more than 800 children buried in the collapse of two schools. Small voices called "Save me!" from beneath the rubble to parents who could hear, but not help.

The United Nations said more than 2.5 million people need shelter after the magnitude-7.6 earthquake along the Pakistan-India border. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Relief said it urgently needed 200,000 winterized tents.

The United States announced Monday that it will provide as much as $50 million for earthquake relief and reconstruction.

"The magnitude of this disaster is utterly overwhelming," said Ambassador Ryan Crocker, in Islamabad. "We have under way the beginning of a very major relief effort."

Crocker spoke at an airport on the arrival of a U.S. transport plane carrying blankets, plastic sheets and other supplies for 2,500 families affected by the massive earthquake that struck on Saturday, killing an estimated tens of thousands. Another U.S. plane carrying relief supplies arrived late Sunday. More planes are expected.

The U.S. military plans to deploy eight helicopters from Afghanistan to help with earthquake relief in neighboring Pakistan.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has complained of a shortage of helicopters needed to ferry in relief workers, food and medical supplies, and appealed for international help.

India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan, also offered assistance, as did Israel, which has no relations with the Muslim nation.

"We are handling the worst disaster in Pakistan's history," chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.

The quake was felt across a wide swath of South Asia from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh. It swayed buildings in the capitals of three nations, with the damage spanning at least 250 miles from Jalalabad in Afghanistan to Srinagar in northern Indian territory. In Islamabad, a 10-story building collapsed, killing at least 24 people.

CBS News correspondent John Roberts spoke with reporter RanJan Gupta by phone to get a sense of the damage in Srinagar.

"You see entire wards filled with people with broken legs, shoulders," Gupta told Roberts. "But more than that, people traumatized. I saw four boys between the ages of 12 and five, and they looked bank and tragic. They couldn't talk, they wouldn't respond. They were just in a daze."

Late Sunday, helmeted rescuers found a survivor after hearing his cries for help. The thin man in a blue shirt, looking dazed, emerged on his own with little help and stood in front of a crowd of cheering onlookers. One rescuer patted his head, and the man waved and pumped his fist in the air.

Pakistan said the death toll ranged between 20,000 and 30,000. India has reported more than 600 dead, and Afghanistan said four were killed.

"We have enough manpower but we need financial support... to cope with the tragedy," Musharraf said in Rawalpindi, according to the state-run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan.

He also appealed for medicine and tents.

Musharraf told the British Broadcasting Corp. he knew of as many as 20,000 people killed, and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told CNN about 43,000 people were injured.

Musharraf said the only way to reach many far-flung areas was by helicopter because roads were impassable.

"Our helicopter resources are limited," he told the BBC. "We need massive cargo helicopter support."

Most of the devastation occurred in northern Pakistan. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of the capital, Islamabad, in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir.