What to Do Before You Call a Tree Service After a Storm

Safety First

Before you do anything else, account for everyone in the household. Keep children, pets, and curious neighbors indoors until you have walked the property and confirmed there are no hanging limbs, downed power lines, or unstable trees in active areas. After a major storm in the Chattanooga area, hospital emergency rooms see a surge of injuries — most of them happen during cleanup, not during the storm itself.

Treat every downed wire as energized, even if you do not see arcing. Wires can re-energize without warning when utility crews restore power upstream. If a wire is on a tree, a fence, a vehicle, or anything else, call 911 and EPB (or your utility) immediately and stay back at least thirty feet. Do not approach, do not move it with a stick, and do not let pets near it.

Document Everything

Before any cleanup begins, walk the property and take dozens of photos and videos from multiple angles. Wide context shots showing the overall scene, medium shots of each damaged area, and close-ups of specific damage. Capture damage to structures, vehicles, fences, outbuildings, and landscaping. Get the date and time on every shot — most phones do this automatically.

These photos are the foundation of your insurance claim. Adjusters cannot reimburse what they cannot verify, and a thorough photo record dramatically speeds the settlement process. If a tree is on your house, photograph the interior too — water damage, displaced insulation, anything visible from inside.

Call Your Insurance Carrier

Open the claim before significant cleanup begins. Most carriers can dispatch an adjuster within days, sometimes within hours after a major regional event when they have additional crews staged. They can also pre-authorize emergency mitigation work like roof tarping and immediate hazard removal, which means you do not have to wait for the full claim review to get the worst of the damage addressed.

Save every receipt. Get written estimates before any significant work begins. Keep a running log of expenses, including any temporary lodging if your home is uninhabitable. Most policies cover loss of use in addition to direct property damage.

Then Call the Tree Service

When you call, describe the situation specifically: how many trees are involved, what is on what (tree on roof, tree across driveway, tree on fence, etc.), whether anything is on or near a power line, and whether anyone is in immediate danger. A reputable emergency tree service triages calls by severity — a tree on a house with active water intrusion takes priority over a tree blocking a back driveway.

Be wary of out-of-area crews going door to door after major storms across Chattanooga, East Ridge, Cleveland, and the Georgia border. They show up after every regional event with truck signage but no local insurance, no permanent address, and no plan to be in town next week. Stick with local, insured companies you can find again next month if there is a problem.

After the Immediate Hazards Are Cleared

Once the property is safe, schedule a full post-storm inspection of remaining trees. Many trees develop hidden cracks, root plate lifting, or canopy imbalances during storms that become problems weeks or months later. A tree that looks fine the day after the storm may have shifted in ways that are not visible until you know what to look for.

This is also the time to evaluate whether the trees that came down had warning signs that could have been addressed earlier. The lessons from one storm inform the preparation for the next, and almost every neighborhood in our region has trees that should be inspected before the next major event.

Trusted Local Tree Care in Chattanooga

Storm response is the most stressful kind of tree work, and the right preparation makes it dramatically easier. Every property is different, and the best decisions come from a real conversation with someone who has worked in your neighborhood, knows the soils on your block, and has climbed the species growing in your yard.

Chattanooga Tree Care Pros is a locally owned, fully licensed and insured tree care company serving Chattanooga, East Ridge, Hixson, Signal Mountain, Red Bank, Soddy-Daisy, Collegedale, Ooltewah, Cleveland, Harrison, and our neighbors across the Georgia state line in Ringgold, Fort Oglethorpe, and Dalton. Our crews are led by ISA-certified arborists and backed by decades of combined experience working specifically in the soils, slopes, and species of the Tennessee Valley.

Whether you need a single tree evaluated, a full property assessment, routine pruning, emergency storm response, or a multi-acre clearing project, we provide written estimates, honest recommendations, and meticulous cleanup. Call (423) 555-0162 today or request a free estimate through our website. We answer the phone, we show up when we say we will, and we treat your property like our own.