Winter Claims More Quake Victims

An infant died of pneumonia and a middle-aged man died of hypothermia, the first confirmed victims of what officials fear will be a new disaster for 3.5 million Pakistanis who survived last month's earthquake but lost their homes.

Troops and aid workers are building shelters as fast as they can for the neediest in the Himalayan highlands. But with heavy rain and a fresh blanket of snow heralding the onset of the region's harsh winter, it isn't fast enough for those left out in the cold since the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed more than 87,000 people.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has been particularly troubled by Pakistani military estimates that 300,000 people remain inaccessible — more than the agency had thought, said spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs.

None of those people have received tents. Of the 500,000 tents the United Nations purchased and stockpiled for quake relief, around 165,000 still need to be delivered, with weather conditions worsening every day, she said.

Stoves and corrugated iron sheeting also are urgently required, as many tents are not winterized, she said. And so far, the U.N. has received US$216 million in emergency relief funds, only 39 percent of its appeal for US$550 million.

She said UNICEF, the U.N.'s children agency, already reported difficulties transporting water and sanitation into the Niloum Valley.

"The race to provide suitable shelter in time is not lost yet, but the consequences resulting from a lack of funds could result in more deaths of vulnerable people" such as the elderly and infants, she said.

CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports that for the United States, the idea here is not just to help, but to be seen helping. In the air over Pakistan, the Stars and Stripes

Phillips reports it's more than just a humanitarian mission, it is a new front on the war on terror, in an area where fundamentalist Islamist groups were often the first to arrive to dispense help in the earthquake zone, also recognizing it is a battle for hearts and minds.

Three-month-old Waqar Mukhtar died of pneumonia hours after he was brought in from nearby Neelum Valley, said Abdul Hamid, a doctor at a hospital in the regional capital, Muzaffarabad.

The man died early Monday, a day after he was brought to a hospital with hypothermia, said Lt. Col. Johan De Graaf, a senior medical officer.

More than 100 people were brought to hospitals in the region with hypothermia and respiratory diseases. That does not include hundreds of women, children and elderly people already suffering from respiratory illnesses, diarrhea, scabies, tetanus and other ailments, even before the first cold snap.

With bad weather blocking roads and grounding helicopters, troops have used vehicles and mules to try to bring aid to remote areas. Walton said it was critical to get more shelter materials and mobile medical teams quickly to high-altitude areas where the weather is worst.

The season's first snow fell on mountains near Muzaffarabad and elsewhere late Saturday. Rain and snow continued Monday, and army spokesman Maj. Farooq Nasir said troops halted traffic on the main Neelum Valley road "to avoid loss of life."

The heavy rains created a near-quagmire in the town of Arja at the camp for a NATO engineering battalion working to clear roads, repair schools and hospitals, and get aid to quake survivors at high altitudes.