South Carolina’s Newberry County Sheriff’s Department has been flooded with 911 calls from concerned citizens reporting incessant siren sounds. However, the mysterious noises are not actually sirens but the loud singing of newly emerged cicadas. Trillions of red-eyed periodical cicadas are emerging from underground in the eastern US, including a rare convergence of two periodical broods that emerge every 13 or 17 years. The collective songs of these cicadas can be as loud as jet engines, prompting calls and questions from residents who are unfamiliar with the natural phenomenon.