Hurricane · Tornado · Severe Weather

Storm Tree Checklist for Homeowners

Use this checklist to notice changes around your trees before and after severe weather. It is an observation guide, not a substitute for a professional tree risk assessment.

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Before the storm

Know what is already there.

The best time to identify a concern is before the weather deteriorates. Walk the property from the ground and from a safe distance.

Look for dead, broken, or hanging limbs, especially over the house, driveway, vehicles, play areas, walkways, and other places people use.
Look for fresh cracks, splits, cavities, open seams, or weak-looking branch unions in trunks and major limbs.
Notice whether a tree appears to be leaning more than it used to or whether the soil is lifting, cracking, or mounding near the base.
Check for recent root disturbance from trenching, construction, grading, paving, drainage work, erosion, or vehicle traffic.
Pay attention to trees in saturated or poorly drained soil, particularly after prolonged rain before the main storm arrives.
Identify trees or large limbs that could block the driveway, primary entrance, emergency access, or another important route if they fail.
Photograph trees of concern from a safe distance before the storm. Pre-storm photos can help document what changed afterward.
If something already looks unsafe, arrange an arborist assessment early. Do not wait until tropical-storm-force winds or severe weather are arriving.

After the storm

Look for what changed.

After conditions are safe, compare the property with what you saw before the storm. Fresh movement or damage is often more important than an old defect that has not changed.

Look for newly broken, torn, or hanging limbs. Do not stand or walk beneath suspended branches.
Compare the tree's lean with what you remember or with pre-storm photos. A new or increased lean deserves attention.
Look at the ground around the trunk for lifted soil, fresh cracks, exposed roots, root-plate movement, or partial uprooting.
Look for new trunk cracks, split leaders, separated branch unions, torn bark, or large wounds that were not present before the storm.
Check whether the crown has lost a major portion of its limbs or has become strongly one-sided.
Watch for trees that were struck by another falling tree or large limb, even when they are still standing.
Notice newly exposed roots, soil erosion, washouts, or changes in drainage around the root zone.
Check trees near houses, fences, sheds, vehicles, streets, sidewalks, and other targets for damage that could affect people or property.
Do not assume a standing tree is undamaged. Some storm-related defects are not obvious from the ground.

Post-storm chainsaw guidance

Danger levels help identify when to back away — they do not tell you a cut is safe.

Storm-damaged wood can be bent, twisted, compressed, suspended, partially uprooted, or carrying loads that are difficult to see from the ground. A chainsaw can release that stored energy suddenly. The categories below are intended only to help homeowners recognize increasing danger.

No category on this page means that a homeowner has been cleared, advised, or authorized to perform chainsaw work. This is general safety information only. It does not evaluate a specific tree, a person's training, equipment, physical ability, site conditions, electrical hazards, or the forces acting on storm-damaged wood.

Extreme danger

Do not approach or cut.

Power lines, suspended limbs, hanging trees, partially uprooted trees, split trunks, active movement, overhead cutting, climbing, or any tree under an obvious heavy load.

Keep people out of the area and contact the appropriate utility, emergency service, or qualified tree-care professional.

High danger

Hidden forces may be present.

Bent or twisted limbs, wood pinned under other debris, crossed logs, root plates, limbs caught in other trees, or material that may roll, shift, spring, or close a saw kerf when cut.

These conditions can change violently when wood is cut. Professional storm-damage experience is strongly recommended.

Chainsaw hazard remains

Apparently simple does not mean safe.

Even a limb or log already on the ground may contain tension or compression, conceal metal or debris, shift while being cut, or create kickback and footing hazards.

If you are not trained and experienced in chainsaw use and storm-damaged wood, do not use this checklist as a reason to begin cutting.

A practical rule after severe weather

When the tree, limb, or log is not resting naturally and predictably, when something is overhead, when roots or the trunk have shifted, or when you cannot clearly determine where the stored load will move after a cut, stop and get qualified help.

Stop and stay away

Some situations are not homeowner inspection situations.

Do not climb, cut, pull, or attempt to free storm-damaged trees or limbs when any of the following is present.

A tree or limb is touching, resting on, or close to a power line.
A tree is actively moving, cracking, splitting, or uprooting.
Large limbs are suspended overhead or caught in another tree.
The root plate has lifted or the trunk has developed a significant new crack or split.
Reaching the tree would require climbing, using a ladder, entering floodwater, or working during dangerous weather.

If a tree or limb involves electrical lines, keep people away and contact the utility or emergency services as appropriate. Do not approach or attempt to move the tree yourself.

Not sure what you are seeing?

If a tree changed after the storm, has a new defect, or is positioned where failure could affect people or property, request an assessment rather than guessing from the ground.

Request a post-storm tree assessment