Key to quake aid: choppers

US military helicopters arrived Monday from neighboring Afghanistan, assigned to help out in the relief effort of a key US ally devastated by the Oct. 8 earthquake. But on arrival in Pakistan, severe thunderstorms and hail kept the choppers all but grounded Tuesday, a source of frustration here.

"Thunderstorms are preventing us from doing our job," says Staff Sgt. Lance Albert, a member of a five-man chopper crew of the Oregon National Guard, aboard a Chinook helicopter.

The official toll of Saturday's temblor stands at 20,000, but the figure is expected to rise as relief workers from Pakistan and as far away as Russia, Britain, and Turkey reach villages cut off by the earthquake and recurring landslides.

For now, the greatest need Pakistan faces is helicopters, the only means of transport left to ferry large amounts of aid into the quake-affected Himalayan region of Kashmir. Most roads remain cut off from landslides. Destruction at larger airports has rendered fixed-wing transport planes such as the Pakistan military's C-130s practically useless. But on days like Tuesday, when weather turns severe, there is simply no way to ferry supplies of food and medicines, which are running critically low.

Vincent Lusser, spokesman of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, says that there is a clear need for more helicopter capacity in this disaster.

"It's extremely mountainous, and even when there aren't landslides, it is difficult for lorries to make it around the corners of those windy roads," says Mr. Lusser. "So obviously, it's useful to have helicopters that can make the trip in half an hour, when it takes about 10 hours to drive."

Like many humanitarian organizations, ICRC has begun to hire its own helicopters to ferry in supplies and transport wounded to its mobile hospitals. Three such helicopters should be arriving later this week.

Much of the relief effort is being borne by military transport. Pakistan's military has 122 transport helicopters and 22 attack helicopters, according to The Military Balance 2004-2005 put out by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. And nearly 30 helicopters have arrived from foreign nations, including eight US military choppers borrowed from operations in Afghanistan. Two from Germany arrived Tuesday, and four from Afghanistan were expected to arrive later in the day.

More air support is on the way. The US Navy has set up a Joint Mobile Ashore Support Terminal to coordinate communications. By Wednesday, two C-17 Globemaster III airplanes will deliver 18 palettes of tents, cots, and food, and four more helicopters will arrive to aid in transportation.

In Islamabad, President Pervez Musharraf asked for patience. "We are doing whatever is humanly possible," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Tuesday announced a new appeal for some $272 million to cover the first six-month emergency phase of the relief effort. UN officials said there is an urgent need for winterized tents and medical care.

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