Urgent need for hospitals, tents

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Survivors of Indonesia's latest earthquake are in desperate need of emergency hospital care and tents for shelter, a presidential spokesman has told CNN.

As more aid begins to trickle into the quake zone on Indonesia's heavily populated Java island, officials have raised the toll from Saturday's tremor to 5,427.

On Tuesday Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, visited hard-hit towns to review relief efforts and promised to improve distribution of aid.

Indonesian authorities and non-governmental aid organizations have struggled to reach some remote towns in the hard hit areas of central Java.

Thousands are still believed to be in need of medical care after the early-morning earthquake, which collapsed many houses as their residents lay asleep. The World Food Program said some 20,000 people were in dire need of help after the quake.

About 1,700 people lay scattered across the floors of Yogyakarta's main hospital, which has beds for about 750 patients, on Monday, and doctors reported running short of critical drugs.

"There's also a growing shortage of basic medical supplies -- antibiotics, bandages -- as the hospital becomes more and more crowded," aid worker Susan Treadwell said.

"We are making progress day by day," presidential spokesman Dino Djalal told CNN Tuesday, but he added that new areas where aid had yet to reach were still being discovered.

The greatest requirement was to get field hospitals and tents to those most in need, he said.

"We are doing our best. The challenge is to move as quickly as possible," Djalal said.

Heavy rain and damaged roads have hindered efforts to help survivors, forcing thousands of those left homeless to forage for food and shelter.

"We have 300 families in this village and have only gotten two sacks of rice," Lastri, 27, holding a 5-month-old, told The Associated Press. "It's not enough." (Watch cries for help and roads of rubble -- 2:21)

The 6.3-magnitude quake, which struck close to the former Javanese royal capital of Yogyakarta, has so far killed 5427 people, seriously wounded 6,504 and left 100,000 homeless, according to the country's Social Affairs Ministry. Another 2,081 suffered minor injuries.

The quake destroyed 19,535 homes and severely damaged another 13,624, the ministry said.

Heavy rain added to the misery Monday as grieving survivors scavenged for food in the debris of their houses. Rescuers are being hampered by the rain, power outages and the closure of a local airport.

Many of the homeless people remained near their damaged residences in makeshift shelters. About 15 small camps housing between 100-200 people each were established near public buildings, the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, said in a press release. (Watch victims treated without anesthesia -- 2:19)

UNICEF said the first of three planned emergency airlifts arrived during the early morning hours Monday. The supplies included collapsible water tanks, tarpaulins, family tents and cooking sets.

U.N. agencies and other groups met Monday in Switzerland and the world body is expected to soon issue a global emergency appeal for help, according to its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. (U.N. hastens aid)

Millions pledged

The international community has already pledged millions of dollars in response to the disaster, the latest in a series to blight Indonesia.

CNN's Dan Rivers, in Yogyakarta, said he has seen little evidence of aid having reached those in need, but progress was being made.

"A lot of the bodies have now been recovered, a lot of the injured have gone to the main centers, and people are beginning to look at getting food and supplies in," he said.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Sunday that Indonesia has allocated some $115 million for relief efforts -- about $10 million for emergency response and the rest for rehabilitation and reconstruction, according to the U.N.'s OCHA.

On Sunday, Australia offered $2.27 million (U.S. dollars) for emergency food, shelter and medical supplies. Other countries pledging aid included Japan ($10 million) and Norway ($3.28 million), OCHA said.

About 100 U.S. military personnel loaded onto C-130 planes on Okinawa Monday bound for the Yogyakarta area, according to a U.S. military official.

The American mission includes doctors, nurses and medical technicians delivering supplies and equipment. The U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines are involved in the effort.

Spain sent a plane Monday laden with 10 tons of humanitarian aid, including blankets, tents and medicine, a government spokeswoman said.

The U.N. World Food Program dispatched three trucks carrying enough high-energy biscuits to feed 20,000 people for a week to the districts of Bantul and Klaten. (Watch tearful survivor tour destruction -- 2:36)

Hospitals overwhelmed

Hospitals have been overwhelmed by the injured and medical workers fear tens of thousands of injured may not be receiving adequate treatment.

"At least one of the six hospitals in the district has been destroyed and other hospitals in the area are overcrowded," according to a World Health Organization press release.

One 35-year-old woman arrived at a hospital Monday with a broken hip, saying the roof of her house collapsed on her and that she had been too scared of aftershocks to come to the hospital.

Since the quake struck, there have been several hundred aftershocks.

Without nurses to provide basic care, the woman was being fed by her 14-year-old son on a makeshift bed in a parking lot cleared of cars to make room for patients, each parking bay marked by an intravenous drip.

In an outdoor area adjacent to the hospital punctuated by the screams of patients treated without anesthesia, a 35-year-old man with a badly fractured leg recalled Saturday morning's temblor.

"We were sleeping when the house collapsed, and I managed to protect my wife from the falling debris," he said.

Volcano threatening

Activity at the nearby Mount Merapi volcano has tripled since Saturday's quake, experts told the AP, and a large eruption is still possible.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific basin's so-called "ring of fire," marked by heavy volcanic and tectonic activity. Scientists are worried about the impact of the quake on Mount Merapi, which experts and villagers have watched closely in the past few weeks.

The nearby volcano has been rumbling for weeks, spewing out lava and hot gases.

On Monday, the mountain spit out lava and hot clouds, sending debris four kilometers (2.5 miles) down its sides.

Since Saturday's quake, the volcano has spewed hot clouds an average of 150 times a day, compared to 50 times before, Subandriyo, chief of the Merapi volcanology and monitoring office who goes by one name, told the AP.

On Sunday, two strong earthquakes were reported in the Pacific, a 6.2-magnitude quake in Papua New Guinea and a 6.7-magnitude quake in Tonga.

Saturday's earthquake is the worst disaster in Indonesia since the December 26, 2004, magnitude-9 earthquake that triggered a tsunami, killing at least 131,029 people in Indonesia alone.

Another earthquake on March 28, 2005, killed about 900 people off the western coast of Sumatra.

Strained by the recent disasters, the world's largest archipelago nation -- home to the world's largest Muslim population -- has been forced to deal with the avian flu threat, with six more human cases of the H5N1 strain reported Monday.

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