United Nations ? Former President George H.W. Bush has appealed for nearly $100 million in aid for survivors of last year’s South Asia earthquake, saying tens of thousands face another winter living in tents.

“If they’re in tents, that’s not good enough,” Bush told a news conference Friday to mark the first anniversary of the Oct. 8, 2005, quake that killed more than 80,000 people and left more than 3 million homeless in Pakistan and India. “But it’s a heck of a lot better than it was a year ago.”

Bush, the U.N. envoy to promote help for survivors of the 7.6-magnitude quake, recalled predictions immediately after the disaster that Pakistanis in rugged mountains would have difficulty getting through the winter. “And it didn’t happen,” he said.

“Nearly 300,000 people have now returned home safely after living in tents for nearly half a year,” he said. “However, full-scale reconstruction and the full resumption of basic services is going to take years.”

A Kashmiri schoolgirl walks Saturday on the rubble of her old school, demolished in the last year's massive earthquake,in Chikar, Pakistan. A year after a devastating earthquake struck northern Pakistan, former President George H.W. Bush is appealing for more aid.

Bush said snow was already falling in some parts of Pakistan and it was critical to get access to people in remote locations.

“If the upcoming winter were to be harsh, elderly people and young children can face renewed vulnerabilities,” he said. Aid agencies expect mountain dwellers to start pouring soon into lowland camps to escape the coming freeze.

Bush said the Pakistani government was determined “that even if the winter might be harsh, people will have protection – so I think they’re moving very hard to try to move toward permanent housing.”

Reconstruction, however, has moved slowly, constrained by rigorous new quake-proofing rules.

According to the relief agency Oxfam, 1.8 million survivors are still living in tents or makeshift shacks.