On April 3, Taiwan suffered its strongest earthquake in over 25 years. With a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale, the earthquake struck at 8 a.m. causing building collapses and landslides across the island. As of Wednesday afternoon, nine deaths and hundreds of injured are confirmed.

The epicenter of the earthquake is on the eastern less populated side of Taiwan, just south of the town of Hualien. Because the epicenter is in a rural area, the worst of the damage missed the larger population centers such as Tiapie and Kaohsiung where most of the country’s population lives. Despite this, hundreds of buildings across the country have either fully or partially collapsed. People are reported to be still trapped inside buildings.

While the damage is widespread, much of it has been minimized due to Taiwan’s higher level of wealth and development meaning that most of the structures in the country are built to withstand earthquakes of this size. Wednesday was a day of rescue and recovery for Taiwan, and over the coming months, the affected communities will have to pick up and rebuild.