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03/10/2006:

"Quake survivors beat the winter"

The race to save hundreds of thousands of Pakistani earthquake survivors from the harsh Himalayan winter has been won, the United Nations said yesterday.

"There has been no second wave of deaths, no massive population movement down the mountains, no severe malnutrition, and no outbreak of epidemics," said Jamie McGoldrick, the deputy humanitarian aid coordinator in Islamabad.

Five months ago yesterday about 87,000 people died when a 7.6 magnitude quake shook Kashmir and North-West Frontier province. Another 1,300 died in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

But fears of a second wave of deaths were averted by a milder than expected winter and a helicopter-led aid effort. By this week an international air fleet, including US and British military helicopters, had flown more than 27,400 trips ferrying food, tents and medicine.
guardian.co.uk