Break In Weather Speeds Quake Aid

Better weather allowed the relief efforts in South Asia's Kashmir region to swing into full gear Wednesday. Helicopters were able to deliver aid a day after rain and hail grounded efforts. Relief supplies poured into Pakistan from about 30 countries, including from longtime archrival India.

Many of the supplies were loaded aboard eight U.S. Chinook helicopters to be brought into the disaster zone. One American soldier in Islamabad told CBS News correspondent Robert Berger he had come from hurricane relief duty in New Orleans.

And the United States has promised to bring in more helicopters. Also flying supplies into the region were helicopters from Germany and Afghanistan. Some 50,000 Pakistani troops joined the relief effort.

The big American choppers, which can carry as many as 65 people, more than double the efficiency of the evacuation operation. Roads to the earthquake zone are choked by the very manpower and supplies meant to provide relief, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth. Helicopters remain the region's cargo carriers and ambulances, bringing supplies in and victims out.

"It just seems like there is no end to the casualties they have up there for us," said U.S. Chief Warrant Officer Mark Jones. "Each aircraft that goes up there is bringing back 30 to 40 casualties and there's always more when we leave. We always have to turn people back."

Four days after Zarabe Shah's home crumbled on her, rescuers on Wednesday pulled the dust-covered 5-year-old out of the rubble, a shot of good news as hopes faded of finding other earthquake survivors. "I want to drink," the girl whispered.

Zarabe's neighbors on Tuesday recovered the bodies of her father and two of her sisters. Her mother and another two sisters survived.

Many bodies were still buried beneath leveled buildings, and the United Nations warned of the threat of measles, cholera and diarrhea outbreaks among the millions of survivors.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is on a regional tour, arrived in Islamabad and was expected to discuss quake relief with Prime Minister Shauqat Aziz and President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

The 7.6-magnitude quake on Saturday demolished whole communities, mostly in the Himalayan region of Kashmir. The U.N. estimated that some 4 million people have been affected, including 2 million who have lost their homes.

"We are in need of tents and sleeping gear," Aziz told the BBC from Muzaffarabad, "and that we are spending all of our energies to get from all over the world."

Despite the influx of aid, residents in Muzaffarabad were desperate, mobbing trucks with food and water and grabbing whatever they could. The weak were pushed aside.

"We can't get it out fast enough for them. We come back here and try to make as many trips a day as we can. We won't get enough up there," said Jones.

"Step by step, we are getting there. It's a process that has to be done in an orderly way. Relief will reach the people," Aziz said.

Jan Vandemoortele, U.N. Resident Coordinator for Pakistan, said key roads into the quake zone that were blocked earlier have been opened up. U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts said that with the resumption of flights, helicopters had been able to unplug any backlog of aid.

About 30 countries- including the United States, France, Japan, Jordan, China, Russia, Iran, and Syria — have sent relief equipment, doctors, paramedics, tents, blankets, medicines, disaster relief teams. Many have also pledged financial assistance.
"Relief material is moving in," Vandemoortele said in Islamabad. "It is getting there. Roads are open now. They were blocked until very recently. We have several trucks that are all loaded and on the road now."

A transport plane bringing tents, medicines and other relief goods from archrival India — also affected by the quake, but less severely than Pakistan — arrived at the air base, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam.

More than 1,400 people have died in India's part of Kashmir, and the offer and receipt of the aid by Pakistan reflects warming relations between the nuclear-armed rivals, which embarked on a peace process early last year.

The Pakistani government's official death toll was about 23,000 people and 47,000 injured, but a senior army official who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the figure publicly said an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people had died.

Rescue workers fanned out of Muzaffarabad by helicopter to remote regions of Kashmir. Among them were eight teams from the British International Rescue Corps, which has found 16 survivors since arriving in the quake zone nearly three days ago.

"As time goes on, hope will get less and less. But you always do get miracles," said Ray Gray, a stocky man in a blue uniform and helmet, as he prepared to board a chopper. "Even if we just find one person, the whole effort is worth it."

Vandemoortele said there have been no reports of epidemic outbreaks so far but the area's health infrastructure has completely collapsed, he said.

In one field clinic alone, 2,000 patients had been treated, most of them for broken arms or legs. It's too early for onset of disease, but officials are fully aware of the potential threat, he said.

The tables in Muzaffarabad's only emergency room were pulled from kitchen rubble, reports Roth. A thousand patients a day lay on them for treatment, beneath ceiling fans supporting drips of IV fluid.

"We don't even have the gloves to put on, we just scrub our hands," said Dr. Neem Zia. "I've seen awful sights. The patients who are brought here are hungry, they are hungry for three days. No food no water, no shelter."

The quake has damaged sanitation systems in the region, destroyed hospitals and left many victims with no access to clean drinking water, making them more vulnerable to disease.

"Measles could potentially become a serious problem," said Fadela Chaib, a WHO spokeswoman in Geneva. "We fear that if people huddle closely together in temporary shelters and crowded conditions, more measles cases could occur."

Measles — potentially deadly for children — are already endemic in the region and only 60 percent of the children are protected. At least 90 percent coverage is needed to prevent an epidemic, WHO said. The agency will soon start gathering essential vaccines for a mass immunization program.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said within the next couple of days there likely would be 25 to 30 U.S. military helicopters sent to Pakistan, from Afghanistan, Bahrain and other countries in the region.