Mercy Corps' Gary Waltenbaugh is on the hunt for 20,000 winterized tents. He has scouted Pakistan, India and China in a global search for shelter to offer beleaguered survivors of the Oct. 8 Asian quake.

So far, the telephone and e-mail quest from his Portland office is falling far short of the target.

"I'm not even getting quoted prices because they can't come up with the numbers we need," said Waltenbaugh, who is checking out a tip about a possible Brazilian source.

As the international quake relief effort heads into a second week, the shortage of tents has become a critical concern as an estimated 4 million people in the disaster zone brace for November snows.

United Nations officials say there is an urgent need for some 300,000 tents to house an estimated 1.8 million of these people in a rugged expanse of Pakistan and Kashmir.

But international relief agencies have had their own stockpiles diminished by a year of disaster, including the massive tsunami that ravaged southern Asia nearly 10 months ago. Asian tent manufacturers that normally supply tents for disaster relief don't appear to have enough on hand to cover demand.

So far, there are only about 50,000 tents available in Pakistan for the relief effort, according to U.N. estimates.

With the November snow season approaching, the scarcity of shelter is raising concerns of a second wave of deaths. Some families now crowd under tarps and plastic sheets. Some take turns sleeping in tents already on site, and others sleep in the open.

"Usually 10 days into a crisis like this, we don't feel this vulnerable. But right now we're really concerned," said Trevor Rowe, a spokesman for the World Food Program, which earlier this week helped bring 1,500 tents to the quake zone in a 47-truck convoy.

Many donors have tried to ease the shortage, with roughly 100,000 pledged and 150,000 more "in the pipeline for delivery," according to Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Assistance.

In Pakistan, normally a hub of tent manufacturing, aid groups sometimes find themselves competing for tents. Soaring demand pushes up prices as middlemen scramble to broker deals. The competition is so intense that one aid group, Oxfam, staked out an exclusive contract with a Lahore tent manufacturer by guaranteeing the purchase of a 100-tent-a-day output for two months.

Mercy Corps is searching for 20,000 winterized tents, which typically are heavy canvas tents — large enough for a family of six — that can be heated by kerosene, perhaps adapted to cooking fires and equipped with a fly to help protect against the elements.

But so far, the Portland-based relief group has only been able to acquire about 2,500 tents.

World Vision, whose U.S. headquarters is in Federal Way, has been distributing shelter kits that offer tarps, blankets and coats to the homeless. It also has been searching for some 14,000 tents to help shelter 70,000 people.

World Vision made a major score in Canada, where the army is donating about 10,000 winterized tents, which will be airlifted to Pakistan.

U.S. tent manufacturers, such as Kirkland-based Alaska Structures, also make huge winterized tents for the military, construction crews and emergency-

relief work.

The company is considering donating some large tents to the Asian quake, according to Carolyn Bishop, an Alaska Structure executive vice president for commercial sales.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com