BAGH, Pakistan (AP) – An infant died Monday of pneumonia and a middle-aged man died of hypothermia, the first confirmed victims of what officials fear will be a new disaster for 3.5 million Pakistanis who survived last month’s earthquake but lost their homes.

Troops and aid workers are building shelters as fast as they can for the neediest in the Himalayan highlands. But with heavy rain and a fresh blanket of snow in the last two days heralding the onset of the region’s harsh winter, it isn’t fast enough for those left out in the cold since the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed more than 87,000 people.

“If we don’t get people into shelters, they will die. It’s as simple as that,” said Air Commodore Andrew Walton, commander of the NATO disaster response team in Pakistan.

“That’s the second disaster that’s waiting to happen if we in the international community don’t do something about it,” he said at a NATO field hospital in Bagh, a town in Pakistan’s part of disputed Kashmir.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was particularly troubled by Pakistani military estimates that 300,000 people remain inaccessible – more than the agency had thought, said spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs.

None of those people have received tents. Of the 500,000 tents the United Nations purchased and stockpiled for quake relief, around 165,000 still need to be delivered, with weather conditions worsening every day, she said.

Stoves and corrugated iron sheeting also are urgently required, as many tents are not winterized, she said. And so far, the U.N. has received $216 million in emergency relief funds, only 39 percent of its appeal for $550 million.

Sunday all helicopters were grounded due to bad weather and they did not resume flying until later Monday, Byrs said. She said UNICEF, the U.N.’s children agency, already reported difficulties transporting water and sanitation into the Niloum Valley.

“It is only the beginning of winter. We are concerned,” she said. “The race to provide suitable shelter in time is not lost yet, but the consequences resulting from a lack of funds could result in more deaths of vulnerable people” such as the elderly and infants, she said.

Three-month-old Waqar Mukhtar died of pneumonia hours after he was brought in from nearby Neelum Valley, said Abdul Hamid, a doctor at a hospital in the regional capital, Muzaffarabad.

The man died early Monday, a day after he was brought to a hospital with hypothermia, said Lt. Col. Johan De Graaf, a senior medical officer.

More than 100 people were brought to hospitals in the region with hypothermia and respiratory diseases. That does not include hundreds of women, children and elderly people already suffering from respiratory illnesses, diarrhea, scabies, tetanus and other ailments, even before the first cold snap.

Parveen Ejaz, 26, stood in line outside the NATO hospital with her two sons and 2-year-old daughter, all suffering from coughs and colds that she blamed on the weather.

“I’m really worried about the winter because I lost my house and we are living in tents,” she said as she held daughter, Nayyab.

With bad weather blocking roads and grounding helicopters, troops have used vehicles and mules to try to bring aid to remote areas. Walton said it was critical to get more shelter materials and mobile medical teams quickly to high-altitude areas where the weather is worst.

Pakistan’s army said as many as 14 battalions of military engineers are working with volunteers and aid workers to build shelters of about 200 square feet, with priority given to families who have no male member in the home and are living above 5,000 feet. It said 18,269 shelters have been completed, with another 4,750 under construction.

The season’s first snow fell on mountains near Muzaffarabad and elsewhere late Saturday. Rain and snow continued Monday, and army spokesman Maj. Farooq Nasir said troops halted traffic on the main Neelum Valley road “to avoid loss of life.”

Engineers were working to clear the road, which links Muzaffarabad with scores of villages and towns and leads to the Line of Control – the heavily militarized frontier that divides Kashmir between nuclear-rivals Pakistan and India.

Nasir said no Pakistan army helicopters would fly in the quake zone Monday because of clouds and rain. Troops used land vehicles and mules to haul supplies to the needy.

The heavy rains created a near-quagmire in the town of Arja at the camp for a NATO engineering battalion working to clear roads, repair schools and hospitals, and get aid to quake survivors at high altitudes.

“It will slow us down, but we will not stop working,” battalion spokesman Lt. Col. Pedro Vallespin said as troops built a boardwalk over the deep mud surrounding his work tent.

“Just think, if you’re working up there, what it’s like with the mud and the landslides,” he said, gesturing at the surrounding hills.

A magnitude 4.7 quake was felt Monday in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta, but there was no word of damage or casualties, said meteorologist Mohammed Jamil. He said the quake was centered about 180 miles northeast of Quetta.

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Associated Press reporter Zarar Khan contributed to this report from Muzaffarabad, Pakistan.

AP-ES-11-28-05 1250EST