“The United Nations reacted with bafflement and dismay on Thursday at the world’s failure to come up with quick cash to help save hundreds of thousands of Pakistani quake survivors before winter sets in.

Relief workers were only a few days away from grounding the vital helicopter fleet which is the only way to get help quickly to the remote mountain villages flattened by the October 8 quake, which killed more than 54,000 people, one U.N. official said.

‘When the money runs out, the choppers stay on the ground and that’s what’s going to start happening in the next couple of days,’ Robert Smith told a Geneva news conference a day after a major conference failed to produce significant cash.

The United Nations aimed to raise $550 million at Wednesday’s conference. It got a meager $16 million.” (Yahoo! News)