French, Japanese, and British aid groups landed planes at the Adisucipto airport in Yogyakarta Tuesday morning – wheeling crates, bags, and coolers mostly containing medical supplies.

Jacqueline Koch, a communications officer for the British group, Merlin, says they had flown in a ton of medicine and equipment Sunday, and more is on the way.

“We’re working with mobile clinics and from what I understand those mobile clinics are also overwhelmed,” she said. “So I think the need for medical aid is the greatest right now, I think that’s the biggest issue.”

There is also serious need for food and clean water. The U.N.’s World Food Program delivered 140 metric tons of food staples Monday, followed by a cargo plane with nearly 40 tons of tents, blankets, and water purifiers Tuesday.

W.F.P officials say at least 100,000 people are relying on emergency rations.

Yogyakarta airport operations director, Gatot Sugiantoro, says he is just glad to see help arrive.

“Because we still have a lot of victims, especially in Bantul, that’s why I hope there will be a lot more of the aid coming in,” he said.

The airport – which was damaged in the quake -resumed service Monday allowing 36 aid flights to land.

Yogyakarta is known throughout Indonesia as a cultural and educational center. Sugiantoro says the earthquake won’t change that.

“In my opinion, yeah, I’m sure that in the future we will return to a normal situation again. But we have to be patient, because step by step we have to reconstruct again,” he said. “And everybody, especially for the Yogyakarta people, you know, the culture is patience. Smiling, and then praying.”

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is at the quake site to supervise relief operations. His government has set aside more than $100 million to help victims recover.

Meanwhile, about 20 kilometers away, the volcano at Mount Merapi has become more active since the quake, with scientists predicting an eruption could come at any time. While not expected to directly affect Yogyakarta, it would heavily tax relief services already struggling here in central Java.

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At the Panembahan Senopati Hospital, hundreds of patients wait on straw mats and blankets for treatment. Surgical procedures such as setting bones and stitching wounds are being carried out in the open air, while vanloads of injured people continue to pour in from rural areas.

Hospital coordinator Daburidiah says medical supplies are running short, and more patients are on the way.

He says right now they need tools for operations, metal plates and pins for broken bones, as well as sutures, antibiotics and medication for tetanus.  All of these are in short supply, he adds, because most people here have suffered serious fractures.

Daburidiah says that the number of patients at the hospital has declined somewhat since Sunday. Thirty-two died during the night. Some are going back to their villages although most of the homes, even the ones still standing, are too dangerous to live in.

Nearly every building in Bantul, Yogyakarta’s southern district, was shaken to rubble by Saturday’s earthquake.

Sunaro, a patient at the hospital, lies on a blanket with a broken leg and recently dressed head wounds.  He says he was injured trying to recover belongings from the ruins of his house.

He says he fled with his family when the quake struck Saturday. But he went back the next day and a piece of the doorway fell on his leg.  He says he’s lucky, because he was able to make it to the hospital on his own.

On the main road through Bantul, hundreds of people beg for food, holding out empty boxes. One of them, 18-year old Desid, says her family is depending on donations from people driving by.

She says if someone gives them food, they can eat, as they did this morning. But they don’t have anything right now. The earthquake took everything, she says – the schools and everything else.

Relief agencies estimate that 200 thousand people were made homeless by the temblor.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has set up an office in the area to oversee recovery efforts, and has visited several sites in the southern part of the city.  He appealed Sunday to the international community for humanitarian aid, and pledged one trillion rupiah, or more than $100 million, for reconstruction.

Relief organizations Monday distributed truckloads of supplies.  The Red Cross and Red Crescent delivered tents for 10,000 homeless. And the World Food Program says it is distributing 100 metric tons of food to hospitals and disaster relief centers in the area.

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