Before anything else, work out what is over your head and stay out of that space. The hazard after a storm is rarely the wood on the ground. It is the limb that broke and did not fall, resting up in the canopy or hung on another branch, and it will come down on its own timing without any warning noise.
Move the cars if they are under the tree, close off the walkway or driveway with something visible, and keep kids and pets out of the area. If a limb is hanging over a door you use, use a different door. Distance is the only real protection you have until someone with rigging is standing in your yard, and it costs nothing.
Look up and trace where limbs are contacting wires before you form any other plan. Line clearance work around distribution lines is generally the utility's responsibility rather than yours, so if a tree is into those lines, that is a call to the utility, not a tree service call.
Treat the service drop running from the pole to your house with exactly the same respect. It is lower, it is closer, it looks less serious and it is not. Never put a ladder, a pole saw, a pruner or anything else near it, and do not let a wet limb resting on it convince you it is fine because nothing is sparking. Assume the ground under any wire with wood on it is dangerous and keep everyone off it.
Broken wood is not the same material as sound wood. A limb that is bent, hung up, wedged or partly attached is holding tension, and when you cut it, it releases in a direction you cannot predict from underneath. A tree that has fallen against a structure is holding the weight of everything above wherever it is resting, and cutting the wrong piece first lets the rest move.
The specific thing that hurts homeowners is a ladder plus a chainsaw. Both hands are on the saw, the ladder is standing exactly where the piece wants to go, and the limb swings when the cut releases. Add wet snow underfoot and cold hands. Cleanup of small debris already on the ground is a reasonable Saturday job. Anything overhead, anything under tension, and anything near a wire is not.
Take photographs from where it is safe to stand, before anything gets cleaned up. Wide shots showing the whole tree and what it hit, then closer shots of the break, the fork, and anything still hanging. Photos help whoever quotes the job plan the work before arriving, and they are the part people regret not having later if a claim is involved.
Then call, and lead with what the wood is over rather than with how the tree looks. Saying a limb is hung high in the tree over the front walk gets a crew's attention in a way that describing storm damage does not, because that is how storm calls get ranked. Phone 801-823-6018, say what is at risk, what is blocked, and whether anything is on a structure or near a line.
Clearing the hanging limb is the emergency. It is not the whole job. A storm that took one limb often left cracks in others, and a fork that opened partway is now carrying weight it was never shaped to carry. It is worth having the rest of the canopy checked once things have calmed down, while someone is already familiar with the tree.
Resist the pressure to make a large decision in the days right after a storm. That is when the door-knocking is heaviest and when removals get sold to people who are still rattled. A damaged tree is not automatically a lost tree. Get the hazard down, get the rest of it read honestly, and then decide whether the answer is pruning, monitoring, or removal.
Block the driveway, park elsewhere and keep everyone out from under it. If nothing is on a structure or a line and nobody has to walk beneath it, the call can wait until morning without much changing. If a limb is over an occupied part of the house, or something is on a wire, treat it as a now problem and contact the utility for anything involving lines.
Because the work is genuinely harder and slower. Damaged wood is under tension, so cuts have to be sequenced to release load safely. The drop zone is already full of debris, the crew is often working directly over the thing that was at risk, and the piece being removed cannot simply be dropped. It is the same crew doing a more careful version of the job.
Slow down. Storms bring out people working door to door for cash and pressure you to decide right there. Ask for the company name, confirm they carry insurance for tree work, and get the scope in writing before anything is cut. Be especially wary of anyone who arrives recommending removal of a tree they have not walked around, or offering to top what is left.
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Read the guide →Get the tree looked at by someone who will tell you to leave it alone.
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