What Kind Of Storms Bring Trees Down Here?
Open country is the difference. A tree standing alone in a field or at the end of a cleared woodlot takes the full force of a squall line, with nothing beside it to break the wind.
Summer storms crossing this township have closed concession roads more than once. The trees that fail are usually the exposed ones, and very often the ones whose shelter was cut down years earlier.
When Is The Risk Of A Tree Falling Highest?
Two periods of the year stand out. The first is a summer squall line arriving while the crowns are in full leaf, because a leafy crown catches far more wind. The second is freezing rain in late winter, which loads every twig with ice.
Booking a canopy reduction before either season is the practical defence, and emergency storm damage cleanup is what happens when nobody does. A crown already leaning under load cannot be safely reduced.
What Should I Do Before The Crew Arrives?
Four steps are worth taking before we arrive. Each makes the site safer and each strengthens the insurance claim:
- Get the utility on the phone where wires are caught up, and work on the basis that fences, gates, tractors and cars touching that tree are all live - Keep everyone away from the standing part, because a tree that has failed once holds load in places nobody can see - Take photographs before anything is shifted, since the insurer wants to see it where it landed - Note which tree failed, what it landed on, and whether anyone or any livestock is shut in
How Do You Decide Which Job To Attend First?
We work worst first, not first come first served. That is worth stating plainly so nobody is left guessing.
Houses, blocked lanes and public roads come at the top. Barns, machinery, vehicles and fencing come next. A trunk lying quietly across a field can wait until later in the week.
Why Is Storm-Damaged Wood So Dangerous?
A limb trapped or bent under another one holds a great deal of stored energy. Cut it at the wrong point and it lets go faster than anybody can move out of the way.
Most of the skill in emergency storm damage cleanup lies in working out what is trapping what, then cutting them free in a safe sequence. The saw in the machinery shed was bought for firewood and is not up to this. It is worth waiting for us.
What Is Included In Emergency Storm Damage Cleanup?
There are two separate jobs and two separate prices. Making the site safe comes first. Clearing and hauling the wreckage is the second half of emergency storm damage cleanup, and you decide how much of it you want done.
A single sheet holds the two prices, plus a note covering which material is hauled away, which trees remain, and whether the stump goes today or another day.