Where oh where are the cicadas????

I am in Washington, DC where I lived from 1991 to 2002.

I was last here in May for a wedding and saw the much-heralded cicadas -- big winged insects who have been in larva form for 17 years and recently emerged to mate for a few weeks before dying. In May, they were divebombing the windshield of the car as we drove through Maryland. You could see scores of them buzzing around streetlamps at night. Squirrels were scared to climb up trees where they swarmed. You could hear them in the distance, sounding like a giant incessant car alarm, as billions of them swarmed in the woods.

Reportedly, by this time in June, they were supposed to be in their full-fledged glory and be a veritable carpet on the sidewalks.

But there are even fewer here than there less than a month ago. And the woods are silent.

Turns out they got washed away in torrential rainstorms a few weeks ago. Can you imagine that? Billions of bugs surfing the waves down the drain, probably to the Anacostia River. Fare thee well, cicadas! Hang ten!