MUZAFFARABAD/ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: Army and international aid agencies resumed helicopter flights in the earthquake-hit areas on Monday as weather turned clement in the morning after intermittent rains overnight However, cold took its first toll when a three-month-old Waqar Mukhtar died of pneumonia hours after he was brought in from nearby Neelum valley in a government hospital here whereas a middle-aged man died a day after he was brought in with hypothermia in the NATO field hospital in Bagh.

The air operations were suspended on Sunday when high-altitude areas of the quake-stricken region received winter’s first snowfall and plains took lashing of moderate rain, compounding the miseries of homeless survivors.

However, transportation of relief goods continued through slippery roads despite threats of landslides in the mountainous terrain.

The air operations were resumed at 10am on Monday after the weather became clear.

“Today the choppers made 70 sorties to remote areas of district Muzaffarabad and Neelum,” army spokesman Major Farooq Nasir told Dawn in the evening.

The ferrying of relief material by road had also continued side by side, he said.

Major Nasir said though the vehicular movement on the Neelum valley road had halted briefly due to a landslide near Panjgran, it was restored shortly afterwards.

“Engineering plants have been permanently stationed in most difficult areas to keep roads open,” he said.

The United Nations and aid agencies have warned of a possible “second wave of deaths” with the onset of harsh winter.

Major Nasir said although people in the mountainous areas had been provided with blankets, quilts and tarpaulins, it was difficult to fight cold in fast-dipping temperatures.

“That is why around 331 teams of army men and volunteers have been constructing shelter homes out of corrugated galvanised iron sheets for the past three weeks for distribution in areas 5000 feet above ground,” he said.

So far, he said, 3900 such homes had been distributed among survivors unwilling to descend to plains.

The meteorological department said Muzaffarabad had received 14 millimetres of rain in the past 24 hours, followed by 17.3 mm in Poonch.

On Sunday, the mountains above 8,000 feet (2,425 meters) had received up to one foot (30 centimetres) of snow.

The current weather system, according to the Met office, was likely to prevail over the next 36 hours when more rain and snowfall were expected on hills.

However, the sunny weather on Monday brought a rare atmosphere of cheer in the squalid dwellings in Muzaffarabad where survivors had braved the consequences of intermittent rains for more than 36 hours.

Children were seen taking classes and women cooking and washing under warm sunshine in different tent villages.

“We faced a lot of trouble because our tent was leaking. Thanks to Allah, the weather has become pleasant today,” said Zainab Bibi, outside her tent covered with a plastic sheet to prevent leakage.

Many survivors complained they could not even burn wood inside their non-winterized tents to keep themselves warm, for fear the tents might catch fire.

“The government should immediately supply us CGI sheets so that we can build makeshift houses and protect ourselves from the chilling cold,” said Tariq Hussain Shah.

Doctors renewed warnings that children and the elderly, already suffering from respiratory illnesses, diarrhoea, scabies, tetanus and other ailments, could see their problems worsening as two earthquake survivors were reported dead on Monday.

Three-month-old Waqar Mukhtar died of pneumonia hours after he was brought in from nearby Neelum valley in a government hospital here whereas a middle-aged man died a day after he was brought in with hypothermia in the NATO field hospital in Bagh.

“Children and the elderly are most vulnerable to respiratory tract infections in chilling colds which can also aggravate or trigger attacks of pre-existing pulmonary conditions causing deaths,” said Dr Asif Naqash, serving voluntarily at a field hospital in Muzaffarabad.

Sunday’s rain and snowfall had halted relief flights and brought an early winter chill that threatened the lives of ill-protected people among about three million made homeless by the October 8 calamity.

While people basked in sunshine on Monday after shivering in their tents during the previous night, conditions in tented settlements were bad because of mud caused by rains.

The early snowfall sent people in mountain villages rushing to build shelters for themselves and their cattle, residents in the region said.

The minimum temperature in the quake-ruined Muzaffarabad rose by one degree to 5 Celsius on Monday but it remained at Sunday’s level of -4 in nearby Murree hills, though dropping to -8 in faraway Quetta. No temperature data was available from the quake-hit areas of the NWFP.

A weather forecast for earthquake region issued by the British Met office on Sunday predicted temperatures as low as -8C to -20C in the highest villages on Monday and Tuesday.