A strong windstorm off the lake or a heavy wet snow can leave a yard full of broken limbs and downed trees in a matter of hours. In the aftermath it's tempting to grab a chainsaw and start cleaning up, but storm-damaged trees are genuinely dangerous, and the worst hazards are often the ones you can't see clearly. Here's how to handle it safely.
First: stay clear of anything near power lines
If a tree or limb is down on a power line, or even near one, stay well back and treat it as live. Don't touch the tree, don't try to move the limb, and keep others away. Call your utility and emergency services. No tree is worth a contact with a live line, and downed lines can energise the ground and nearby objects.
What needs immediate attention
- A tree or large limb on your house, garage, or vehicle. This needs careful, professional removal to avoid making the damage worse.
- A trunk that's split or leaning toward the house. Storm-stressed trees can fail further without warning.
- Branches hung up in the canopy. A broken limb caught overhead is a falling hazard that can drop on someone at any time.
- Anything blocking your driveway or access, which you'll need cleared to get in and out safely.
Why storm wood is so dangerous
Broken and bent limbs are often under enormous tension, what arborists call spring poles and loaded wood. Cut them in the wrong place or the wrong order and they whip back with shocking force. Hung-up limbs can come down the instant you disturb the branch holding them. This is exactly the kind of work that puts well-meaning homeowners in the hospital every storm season. It's worth leaving to a crew that knows how to read and release that tension safely.
What can wait
Not everything is an emergency. Smaller branches down on the lawn, debris that isn't overhead or blocking access, and minor damage to a tree that's otherwise stable can wait for a scheduled cleanup. The priority is removing the things that could hurt someone or cause more damage. The rest is just tidying, and it can be done in an orderly way.
Check the survivors
After the obvious mess is cleared, it's worth having the remaining trees looked at. A tree that took a storm hit can have cracks, partial failures, or hung-up wood that isn't obvious from the ground but will cause problems down the line. We check the survivors as part of any storm cleanup, so you're not surprised by a delayed failure weeks later.
If a storm has hit your trees, we offer emergency tree service and storm damage cleanup across Kelowna and the Okanagan, day or night. Get the dangerous stuff dealt with safely. Call us and we'll respond as fast as we can.