Over the last few days that DUP threat to hit the electoral nuclear button has receded in all likelihood because the UUP has called their rivals' bluff.
When the Earth has stopped shaking and the waters have receded, when the wind has blown out and the bodies have been taken to the makeshift morgue (for natural-disaster morgues are always makeshift), what then?
Hopes of progress at a meeting to avert a crisis in Northern Ireland's public finances and power-sharing agreement have receded further after the British government and Sinn Féin issued robust warnings reaffirming opposing positions.
But all this sound and fury receded with the flood waters, and it was soon business as usual.
The feared death spiral, sucking in overdrawn governments and bank vaults stuffed with their debts, receded.
Forced onto a ship at gunpoint by the military police in Cooktown, McIvor remembers the tears in elders' eyes as the sight of their tropical northern homeland receded.
Though many people around the world think of the death penalty as being an American foible, the annual report points out that it has receded into a rump of hardline states.
Then gradually as the threat receded and as people felt if there is a flu pandemic it won't be too bad, the money died away".
For most Australians the last long drought was perceived to be the result of climate change, and when the drought broke their concerns about climate change receded.
Flood waters in many areas had briefly receded on Tuesday following fair, sunny weather, but with scattered overnight showers and predictions of more flash flooding, officials and forecasters are warning residents to stay off the roads and remain vigilant.
After some hard bargaining with provincial governors, the prospect of regions declaring total economic independence has receded, at least for now.In foreign policy too, things could be worse.
