Storm Damage Tree Work in Winston-Salem

People first. Get everyone out of the rooms under the impact and stay out of them. If the tree has taken the service drop down, or if there is any line on the ground, treat every wire as live and call the utility, not a tree crew. Then call the tree company and your insurer, in either order. Photograph everything before anything is moved, from several angles and including the wider yard, because the pictures taken before cleanup are the ones the claim rests on.

Coverage generally turns on what the tree hit rather than on the tree itself. Homeowner policies commonly respond when a tree has damaged a covered structure, and often cover the removal cost as part of that. A tree that came down in the yard and hit nothing is frequently not covered, or covered only up to a small sublimit. Policies differ enough that the only reliable answer is your own declarations page, and the call to the insurer is worth making before the cleanup rather than after.

Freezing rain loads every twig, so the trees that come apart are the ones with the most surface area held furthest from the trunk. In this area that means long-limbed water oaks, Bradford and other Callery pears, which split at their crowded branch unions almost as a matter of course, silver maples, and pines that bend until the top snaps out. Trees with tight V-shaped forks and heavy end weight are the ones to look at ahead of a storm. Structural pruning done in a quiet year is the only real preparation there is.

Storm-damaged wood is under load in ways that are genuinely hard to read from the ground. A limb bent over and pinned is storing energy, and when the saw releases it the piece moves fast and rarely where you expect. Add a chainsaw overhead, a ladder, wet ground, and a possible service drop, and it becomes the situation that fills emergency rooms after every ice event. Ground-level cleanup of what has already fallen clear of everything is a different matter and plenty of people handle that themselves.

Not necessarily, and the decision is easier a season later. Hardwoods can lose a lot of canopy and rebuild it. The questions that matter are whether the trunk is intact, whether the root plate has lifted, whether the remaining limbs are attached soundly, and whether enough of the crown is left to feed the tree. A tree that has lost most of its structure or is visibly leaning where it was not before is a removal. One that has lost limbs but kept its frame is often worth cleaning up and watching through the next growing season.