Is the example of Italy in today's news a sign that people are going nutty over doomsday prophecies?

There was a story in today's news about a seismologist who, while alive, predicted a major earthquake would strike Rome on May the 11th, 2011. Apparently many people in Rome took his prediction seriously and Rome is in a bit of chaos at the moment with shops closed and public transport suffering due to many people having taken the day off to get out of the city. Normally, people wouldn't react like this to some bizarre prediction, but, I don't know; it just seems like there's been an increase in nutty doomsday prophets lately and people are more likely to take them seriously. What do you think?