The pitfalls of a ‘connected’ Chinese population?

On May 20 in the town of Anping, netizens suddenly heard through QQ [an instant messaging service] that today the village cadres went from house to house to inform people that at 3:00 on the 21st there will be an earthquake in Loudi. “All the villagers must do preventive measures, as far as possible, to avoid casualties.” Some netizens also reported that they received the same notice, and did not want to go home to sleep.

We called the Loudi City Seismological Bureau, but no one answered the phones. Then we called the Loudi Lianyuan Anping Township, where according to the town party secretary Xiao xian, they have received a notice from the Loudi Seismological Bureau. The notice said: According to China Seismological Network Center determination - May 20 1 At 52 points, in Sichuan Ping Wuxian (32.3 degrees north latitude, 104.9 degrees east longitude) Loudi may have felt a 5.0 aftershock. The township must be prepared to do a good job of prevention and dilapidated buildings must not be occupied. Unexpectedly, this notification by the villagers was misunderstood as “at 3:00 on May 21 Lianyuan an earthquake of about 5.0 will occur.” Xiao xian said they are working to inform the villagers, and would advise everyone to feel at ease go home.

At 23:00 pm, for fear of earthquakes, many people in Loudi dared not go home. One after another, they took to the streets. People called to confirm that information, but most people have a sleep Rumeng Xiang. [not sure what that means]

Rumors were spread by text messages that a large earthquake was due to hit this central Hunan city between 12-2am. Thousands of people flooded the main square, some with blankets intending on spending the night outside with their families. The giant TV, which had been showing state-media’s grief-filled clips from last week’s disaster (hundreds of miles away) now shows a typed message “As of now no earthquake threatens Loudi, return to your homes, do not believe or spread the rumors…” 湖南婁底