Tree Emergencies: What to Do First

Step-by-step responses for the 8 most common tree emergencies homeowners face

Before Anything Else: Stay Away

A damaged tree is an unpredictable tree. Branches under tension can release with lethal force. A leaning tree can fall without warning. A tree on a power line is electrified. Your first instinct will be to go look at the damage up close. Don't.

Assess from a distance equal to the height of the tree. If a 60-foot tree is damaged, stay at least 60 feet away until you've determined it's not an immediate hazard. Take photos from a safe distance. Your insurance company and your arborist will need them.

Branch or Tree on a Power Line

Do not touch the tree, the branch, or anything touching the tree. A downed power line can energize the tree, the ground around it, and anything in contact with it. You can be killed by ground current standing 30 feet from an energized line.

Call your utility company's emergency line first, not a tree service. The utility company must de-energize the line before anyone can safely work near it. Do not let a tree service tell you they can handle it. Only the utility company can confirm a line is de-energized.

Keep everyone (including pets) away from the area. If a line is down and arcing, call 911.

Tree Fell on Your House

If anyone is trapped or injured, call 911 immediately.

If everyone is safe, do not try to move the tree yourself. A partially supported tree can shift unpredictably when weight is removed from one end.

Call your insurance company and a certified arborist (in that order). Document everything with photos before anything is moved. Your insurance adjuster needs to see the damage as it occurred.

If the tree is still partially standing (broke partway up the trunk and the top fell on the house), the remaining trunk may be unstable. Keep people away from both the fallen section and the standing portion until an arborist assesses it.

Cover any exposed interior with tarps to prevent water damage if rain is expected. This is about the only thing you should do before professionals arrive.

Broken Branches Hanging in the Crown

Hanging branches (called "hangers" or "widow makers") are branches that broke but didn't fall, caught in the crown above. They can fall at any time without warning.

Do not stand under the tree. Do not try to pull them down with a rope. A branch wedged in the crown can weigh hundreds of pounds and the fall path is unpredictable.

Call an arborist who has climbing capability or a bucket truck. This is a standard service call, not an emergency, unless the hanger is over a structure or high-traffic area. If it's over a walkway or driveway, rope off the area and reroute traffic until it's removed.

Ice or Snow Loading

Heavy ice or wet snow bends branches to the ground. Your instinct will be to knock the ice off. Don't.

Branches under ice load are under enormous tension. Disturbing them can cause them to snap upward or sideways unpredictably. Let the ice melt naturally. Most branches will return to their normal position after the weight is gone. Branches that remain bent after the ice melts were permanently deformed and should be pruned by an arborist.

If branches are bent to the point of touching power lines, call your utility company. If large branches are bent over your roof and you're concerned about collapse, evacuate that part of the house and call an arborist.

Lightning Strike

Lightning can explode bark, shatter wood, and kill a tree instantly, or it can cause subtle internal damage that doesn't show symptoms for months. The visible damage (a strip of bark blown off one side of the trunk) is often less serious than the invisible vascular damage.

If the tree is near your house, have an arborist assess it within a few days. Lightning can weaken the structural integrity of the trunk even when the external damage looks minor. A tree that appears to survive a lightning strike may fail in the next storm because the wood is fractured internally.

Don't prune a lightning-struck tree immediately. Give it one full growing season to show whether it's going to recover or decline. The damage pattern will become clear over time.

Tree Hit by a Vehicle

Get the driver's license plate number, name, and insurance information if possible. Vehicle damage to a tree is a property damage claim, and the tree may be worth $15,000-50,000+ depending on species, size, and condition.

Document the injury with photographs from multiple angles. Show the extent of bark loss, the size of the wound relative to the trunk, and any visible damage to the root zone (soil pushed up, roots exposed).

Do not apply wound paint or sealant. Use a sharp knife or hand pruner to clean up any ragged bark edges around the wound. The tree's natural compartmentalization process handles healing better than anything you can apply.

Have an arborist assess the structural integrity. A vehicle impact can fracture the trunk internally even when the external damage is limited to bark loss. If the tree provides shade or value to your property, the arborist's assessment becomes documentation for your insurance claim.

Sudden Lean (Tree Starting to Uproot)

This is the most urgent tree emergency. A tree that has developed a new lean (it wasn't leaning last week) is actively failing at the root plate. It can fall at any time.

Look at the base on the side opposite the lean. If you see the soil lifting, cracking, or the ground heaving upward, the root plate is pulling out of the ground. This is not fixable. The tree is coming down.

Evacuate the fall zone (the area the tree could reach if it fell in any direction). That's a circle with a radius equal to the tree's height plus 10 feet.

Call an arborist for emergency removal. If the tree is leaning toward a structure or public area, call your city's emergency services line as well. Some municipalities have emergency tree response programs.

Do not try to cable, brace, or prop up a tree with active root plate failure. Supplemental support cannot hold a tree whose anchor system has failed.