diff --git a/test/prepare_db.sh b/test/prepare_db.sh
index b5bb50c8..f20f0e45 100755
--- a/test/prepare_db.sh
+++ b/test/prepare_db.sh
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ die() {
 }
 
 echo "preparing postgres..."
-dropdb ${TEST_DB}
+dropdb ${TEST_DB} 2> /dev/null # error expected if doesn't exist
 createdb -Ttemplate_postgis -EUTF8 ${TEST_DB} || die "Could not create test database"
 psql -f test.sql ${TEST_DB}