July 16, 2002

LIMA, Peru - Peruvian authorities struggled to overcome freezing weather and roads blocked by snow to deliver supplies to isolated mountain regions where a cold wave has killed dozens of people, including many children.

President Alejandro Toledo said Tuesday at least 59 people have died since an unusual cold spell struck southeastern Peru more than a week ago, pushing temperatures to below zero. Storms have dumped up to three feet (one meter) of snow in some areas.

The majority of the dead were children, Toledo said. Civil Defense had previously set the total death toll at 18.

Toledo over the weekend declared a state of emergency in eight provinces, as officials called for aid from other parts of Peru and abroad to help feed and shelter more than 66,000 people who have been affected.

Vice President Raul Diez Canseco told reporters that some of Peru's poorest, most remote communities needed urgent aid.

"What there is there is not poverty, it's extreme misery," he said. "The government is doing everything humanly in its reach."

Health workers and Civil Defense flew food, medicine and blankets by helicopter to areas in the remote Andes mountains. Snow and ice made many dirt roads impassable.

Strong winds and high altitude also impeded helicopter flights to some areas, prompting authorities to send supplies by rescue patrols on foot.

Thousands of llamas, sheep and cows — whose meat, milk and wool sustain the traditional Indian communities in Peru's Andean highlands — have frozen to death.

The snow has mostly tapered off, but freezing temperatures have persisted, causing many children and elderly people to contract pneumonia and bronchitis, health officials said.

Civil Defense said it has sent 152 tons of humanitarian aid to affected areas.

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