Central Texas storms can drop a mature tree in seconds. If you're reading this with one lying across your roof, fence or driveway, here's the order to do things in.
1. Get everyone away from it — including from inside
A tree resting on a structure is holding stored energy. It can shift, roll or drop further without warning, especially as wind continues or as saturated ground keeps moving. Clear everyone out of the rooms underneath and downhill of it, and keep people away from the root plate — a partially uprooted tree can rock the entire root mass back into the hole it came out of.
2. Assume every wire is live
If the tree is touching a power line, a service drop to your house, or anything you're not certain about, stay well back and call your utility first. Not us — them. Downed conductors can energize the ground around them and can energize the tree itself. No tree work of any kind happens until the line is confirmed de-energized.
3. Photograph everything before anything moves
This is the step people skip and regret. Take wide shots showing the whole scene, then closer shots of every point of damage — the roof, the fence, the gutters, any vehicle, and the base of the tree. Get the root plate and any visible decay in frame, because insurers sometimes ask whether the tree was already failing.
Do this before a single branch moves. Once cleanup starts, the evidence is gone. We take our own documentation photos on every emergency call and hand them over, but your own set from before anyone arrived is worth having.
4. Call your insurer, then call us
Open the claim early. Most homeowners policies cover removal when a tree has hit a covered structure, and many cover a limited amount for removal even when it hasn't. Ask specifically what your policy says about debris removal, because that's where the coverage varies most.
Then call a tree service. Our line is answered 24 hours a day at (512) 679-3463 — that's the whole point of running an emergency service. Tell us what's down, what it's resting on, and whether anyone's property is still at risk, and we'll tell you honestly when we can be there.
5. Do not cut a tree that's under tension
This is the part we want people to take seriously. A tree lying on a roof, bent against a fence, or hung up in another tree is loaded like a spring. Cut it in the wrong place and it releases — fast, and not in the direction you expected. Chainsaw injuries and fatalities after storms overwhelmingly come from homeowners cutting storm-damaged wood, not from the storm itself.
Loose small branches on flat ground are fine to drag clear if you want the driveway open. Anything bearing weight, anything overhead, anything spring-loaded: leave it. It costs nothing to have us look.
6. Cover openings, but only safely
If the roof is breached and more rain is coming, tarping helps limit secondary water damage — and insurers generally expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent further loss. But don't get on a wet roof with a tree still on it. If it isn't safe to reach, it isn't worth it; interior water damage is a claim, a fall is not something you can file for.
What we do when we arrive
We stabilize the hazard first — securing the tree so it can't shift further — then take the weight off the structure in controlled sections, rigging pieces down rather than dropping them so the damage underneath doesn't get worse. Then we clear the debris, haul it off, and leave you with photos for your claim.
We answer the phone at 2 a.m. because that's when trees come down. Call (512) 679-3463 any time.