Up to 8 inches of snow fell in some high-altitude areas and up to 1.2 inches of rain drenched some lower areas, the Meteorological Department said.

“Flights are off for today,” said a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Kashmir.

An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) official said their air and road operations had also been called off.

The October 8 earthquake killed more than 73,000 people, most of them in the Pakistani Himalayas.

A race against time is on to ensure hundreds of thousands of homeless survivors are given adequate shelter and enough food to see them through a bitter winter.

If not, disease could sweep through cold, poorly nourished survivors, causing a second wave of death, aid officials say.

Snow was falling in the village of Pieer Chanasi yesterday afternoon and residents were grim.

“We’re in trouble. Our children and animals are also in trouble,” said Tanvir Naqvi. “The temperature is dropping and a tent is not enough.”

Fresh landslides, apparently triggered by the rain, disrupted traffic on the road up to the village, which was under about 2 inches of snow.

The authorities hope people in high-altitude settlements will come down to tent camps on valley floors for the winter, but most people have chosen to stick it out at their ruined homes.

Aid officials are making plans in case bad weather sends a flood of people down into unsanitary and over-crowded tent camps in Muzaffarabad and other towns.

The ICRC official said good weather up to now meant aid deliveries were slightly ahead of schedule, but prolonged bad weather would be a worry.

“We have been very lucky - or the survivors have - that we’ve been able to fly for a month without interruption,” said Pauli Immonen, in charge of ICRC air operations.

A weather official said 8 inches of snow had fallen in the Naran area and 7 in the Kaghan Valley, both in North West Frontier Province. An inch fell in the hill resort of Murree to the north of Islamabad.

The temperature in Muzaffarabad dropped to a low of four degrees Celsius (39 Fahrenheit) on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that people from high altitude villages continue to descend to lower areas due to increasing chill in the weather.

“There are indications, however, that affected communities prefer to remain in their villages if they can survive with adequate shelter and sufficient food throughout the winter,” OCHA said in the situation report.

The latest report noted that women tend to stay behind in the mountainous villages, while men descend searching for aid, and then return.

Pakistan Army estimates that from the Kaghan Valley around 1,000 persons are descending every day. In addition, approximately 500 people are coming down from the Allai Valley.

“Although reports indicate the majority of the affected people intend to remain in the hills, a significant number of villagers may seriously consider moving down to the camps when the winter closes in,” the OCHA report said.

There are still concerns over access to the Allai Valley and its main town Bana due to poor road conditions.

Aftershocks caused landslides and closure of the road from Bana to Rashang Valley. The Karakoram Highway north of Bisham is accessible to NGOs and truck convoys.

‘Winter Race’ has resulted in over 8,000 shelters built by the military and 6,000 by the humanitarian community. According to the Federal Relief Commission (FRC), civilians have also built more than 7,000 shelters. The military estimates that around 300,000 affected people will remain in inaccessible areas in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) over the course of the winter months and according to FRC, 5,445 families are currently staying in formal camps, managed by the government.

It is also estimated that 30,000 of the total population of 190,000 in Allai have descended and settled in camps, tented villages or with host communities.

With bitter winter setting in fast, food has now become the number one priority, and “will be granted 60% of the total cargo transported. Thirty-five per cent will be granted to shelter and 10% to other items,” said UNOCHA.

So far, over 309,000 tents of the 500,000 required (62% coverage) have been provided with a further 165,000 in the pipeline for delivery by early December.

The UN also noted that supply of corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) sheeting is a constraint due to insufficient quantities of material available. Stoves are urgently needed.

The UN said there is need for identifying and establishing with a proper registration process near Muzaffarabad based on reports and assumptions that an increasing number of families will descend from the Neelum Valley and settle in and around Muzaffarabad city.

All the 23 formal and spontaneous camps, hosting a total of 38,000 displaced persons, have been surveyed. It is recommended that some of these camps be closed.

Road access in the Lower Neelum Valley has improved, although the traffic continues to be very slow and hazardous, said UNOCHA report, but fearing greater high chances of further road closures.

British Chinook helicopters have transported approximately 820 metric tons of shelter material, non-food items and food to the Neelum and Leepa Valleys over a six-day period. Reportedly the majority of these are single males who settle with the host community. The camps around Balakot have also noted increased populations in recent days.

For Bagh region, the UN is considering a policy decision on establishment and management of camps required to avoid the growing number of spontaneous camps with insufficient and improper facilities and services. - Agencies