Aftershocks fizzle

There was a panic of sorts on Monday night because the provincial Seismological Bureau (rightly) issued a warning about expected strong aftershocks in the quake zone. That night I got call after call and text message after text message from worried Chinese friends (and one French friend) saying that I should sleep outside. I didn't. I was a little worried about it, though, since these were trustworthy friends telling me that it wasn't a rumor and they had heard it themselves on the news, repeatedly.
Anyway, they weren't lying, but they were wrong. The next day the Seismological Bureau had to issue a clarification to the people of Chengdu saying, once and for all "Chengdu is not in 'the quake zone'. Stay in your homes."

Anyway, I'm fine. I did have a pretty cool dream that night though, about the building swaying back and forth like one of those ducks or horses in playgrounds that are each on a really huge stiff spring, that then kids get on and rock back and forth. A lot of people are still sleeping outside. Far from a majority, I should say, but a lot. Tents are still up on almost every available patch of grass or empty lot in the city. There's really no more danger, so my theory is that since the weather's so beautiful, they just decided that since it was so fun sleeping outside, and they took so long setting up a little tent complex with tarps and mattresses and all, why not a few nights more?

From the Chengdu International Women's Club:
In an interview this morning on Sichuan television, an official of the
prediction office of the Sichuan Seismological Bureau said that the
warning last night was for the central earthquake zone and that
Chengdu does not lie in the aftershock danger zone. Any aftershock
that reaches Chengdu will be much weaker than the original quake.
Chengdu people, long as they are not living in a weak structure, have
nothing to worry about, said the seismologist. In fact people running
out in the streets might be hit by something that fell off a building,
he said. He showed a map of the aftershocks, adding that 4000
aftershocks have been detected since the May 12 quake. The map shown
on TV of the May 12 and aftershocks lie in a rectangular box running
from the southwest to the northeast with a centerline just west of the
western margin of the Chengdu plain. A similar map is on the USGS
website earthquake.usgs.gov at http://tinyurl.com/5loy9c