Balakot, Pakistan ? The death toll from Pakistan’s earthquake rose sharply to nearly 40,000 on Saturday, with the president warning the numbers could jump still higher as relief teams reach more villages in the endless folds of the Himalayan mountains.

Homeless survivors searched desperately for blankets and tents to brace against temperatures that dropped to 46 degrees. The suddenly cold weather in some hard-hit areas was an ominous sign that winter was fast approaching – with thousands of villagers still cut off from any aid whatsoever a week after the magnitude 7.6 quake hit the region.

The heavy rain began early Saturday and continued past daybreak today in many stricken towns, and snow fell in the surrounding mountains, disrupting efforts to help an estimated 2 million people still lacking shelter. Only 18,000 tents have been distributed so far to house them, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Saturday.

With temperatures down to 46 degrees and torrential rains that continued past sunrise today, the hard-hit town of Bagh became a rain-soaked nightmare for victims streaming in from nearby villages seeking help from aid groups.

Helicopter relief flights – which have been ferrying supplies into the quake zone and ferrying out the injured – were halted for about 90 minutes Saturday morning before resuming, except to Balakot where the weather was particularly bad. That left hundreds of injured, cold and terrified people waiting by the helipad, hoping for the weather to clear.

A Pakistani earthquake survivor takes shelter from the rain under the rubble of a destroyed house along a roadside Saturday in Balakot, Pakistan. The death toll in the earthquake neared 40,000 as rain compounded the misery of the survivors.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said the grim numbers – estimated by the military at 38,000 dead and 62,000 injured in Pakistan alone – were likely to get worse in the coming days as rescue teams reach more villages.

The official toll in Pakistan, which previously stood at 25,000, rose sharply because more bodies have been pulled from the rubble in recent days, army officials said.

“I think it will keep rising when we go into the valleys,” the president said at a news conference in Rawalpindi, near the capital.

Officials say 200,000 houses were destroyed by the quake. Aziz also said officials were planning an international donors’ conference to be held within the next week in Geneva.