Aftershocks created Old Testament scene

As I was sitting in Chengdu's Bookworm restaurant early yesterday the ground began to shake, drinks eddied wildly in glasses and there was a ticking sound as the building creaked under the strain.

The 6.1 magnitude tremor was the latest and biggest aftershock to rattle Sichuan province which has experienced hundreds since last Monday. Pretty much everyone in the restaurant had been through the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people five days earlier, so they were blasé about what they knew was a less powerful quake. It merely served to reinforce the sense of paranoia in the city after the earthquake whose epicentre was 200kms from Chengdu.

The aftershocks wear on your nerves, particularly as fears persist that the spate of seismic activity is a precursor to another "Big One".

Shortly after the tremor, strong winds whipped up quickly, powerful enough to send the tables and chairs outside the restaurant skidding along the street, and knocking over a pair of large coffin-size boxes used for an outdoor stage. A burst of squally rain, driving hard against the pavement, made it feel like a scene from the Old Testament: would a plague of frogs be next?

The strong winds also blew away many of the tarpaulin bivouacs set up around town by residents afraid to go into their homes until their deep, and eminently sensible, fear of aftershocks subsides. Many people slept in their cars in Chengdu, even though that can be dangerous, too. The buildings were unsafe, but the high winds made the streets unsafe. Getting out was essential, you just didn't want to take a chance on being inside. Soon, however, the residents of the building were pouring downstairs to sleep in the Bookworm, hoping they would be protected by its ground floor walls.