Heavy rain, snow lash Pakistan quake zone
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-02 10:36

Last month, seven people, including four children, died in a similar accident, and U.N. officials said they had started teaching people how to make safe fires.

In Muzaffarabad and nearby areas, survivors said the rain and snow were making their lives miserable.

Sajjad Ali Shah, a 38-year-old at a damp, riverside camp in Muzaffarabad, said people had dug drains around their tents to keep out rainwater, but the ground had become soaked.

"We wrap our children in blankets, but it is very cold," he said.

In snow-covered Sudhan Gali, a high mountain village south of Muzaffarabad, Shabbir Ahmed Khan expressed fear that canvas tents might not be able to withstand the weather.

"Our houses have been destroyed in the earthquake and these tents are not sufficient to protect us from snow. There is no place where we can hide ourselves," said Khan, a former soldier. "We need steel sheets for shelter. Our children are shivering with cold."

Ithar Jan Bibi, a woman in another village near Muzaffarabad, said she was running out of food that aid workers distribute every 15 days, and she was not sure whether the next handout would arrive on time because of the bad weather.

"I cannot make fire in the tent and I do not have dry wood to burn," she said. "It is impossible to fetch water in the snow."

Maj. Farooq Nasir, an army spokesman in Muzaffarabad, said army engineers would keep roads open when bad weather grounds helicopters.

The army said it has stored seven days of food supplies at 16 emergency supply bases in areas likely to be cut off by heavy snow.

The Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir suffered the most casualties from the quake. India controls the other part of the divided territory, but both countries claim it in its entirety.