Storm Preparedness & Safety Checks After Storms

Jason Parker from Davey's Horsham, Pa., office talks about what to do before and after a storm to protect your landscape.

In this episode we cover:  

• Winter in Philadelphia (0:37)
• What arborists look for before a storm (0:55)
• Scheduled storm maintenance (1:33)
• Handling ice storms (3:15) (5:50)
• What arborists do after a storm (3:52)
• Winter rain events (6:56)
• Planting the right tree in the right place (9:00)
• What Jason likes to plant near houses (10:35)
• How arborists prepare for forecasted storms (11:33)
• Battery-powered chainsaws (14:20)
• Chainsaw safety for homeowners (15:50)
• Arborists' feeling about storms (19:05)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.  

To learn more about preparing for winter storms, check out our blog, Your Backyard Tree Checklist for the Winter Storm Season.

To learn more about your responsibilities after a tree falls, read our blog, Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Tree Removal After Storms?

To learn more about protecting your landscape from storms, check out our blog, What to do if a Storm Damaged My Tree?

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!    

Transcript

Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer. I'm joined again by Jason Parker. He's the district manager in the Horsham, PA area near Philly. Today we're talking all about getting ready for storms, but also safety checks after storms. Jason, what has the winter been like for you so far? Have you guys been dealing with storms?

Jason: We actually have this year. First time in almost three years, we saw some snow, got some icing. Definitely something we were all not used to, both in the driving and dealing with some storm damage.

Doug: What do you look for when you go out to a property before a storm to be sure that that property is going to be safe?

Jason: There's a lot of things that we look at before a storm. I think the most important one is targets. You want to deal with trees that are close to the house, the shed, the garage, the driveway, things that could be potentially impacted if a tree were to fail or a portion of a tree were to fail. That's number one. What are the targets on the property? Where are the areas that are most highly used? What trees are around them? What do we need to do to make them safe?

Doug: Do people usually call you? Do they call you out before a storm or is this something that happens usually as a course of your regular maintenance on a place?

Jason: Yes. We definitely end up with a little bit of both. We get people that are very proactive and those are the majority of our customers, I would say. Of course, post-storm, we end up with lots of people who are reactive and having to deal with whatever may have occurred. One of the things that is nice about getting more regular storms is it keeps people a little bit more aware of what the potential could be.

When we have a lull like this where it's been, in the Philadelphia area anyway, like I said, almost three years since we've gotten snow, people have sort of forgotten about what that is like, what it can do to their trees, and mnaybe the things that they should be doing to prepare for that. This was, I think, maybe a little bit of a wake-up call for some people who have maybe deferred some of their maintenance and getting them back into the swing of, hey, every once in a while I should have my trees checked out.

Doug: Yes. We're in the same boat on this side of the state where you get lulled into a false sense of security with a winter that isn't too rough for the last few years. I think for me, the scariest thing are the ice storms. Even though I do have an arborist looking at my property at least once a year from Davey, those ice storms scare me and I think sometimes no matter how good of a job you do at getting your trees ready, something can always happen with it, depending on how thick that ice gets, right?

Jason: Yes. That's a true statement. It's definitely one of the things that I try to focus on with my customers, letting them know that, hey, we can do the best that we can to prepare you. Mother nature throws all kinds of interesting stuff at us and sometimes no matter how well prepared you are, stuff can still happen. Doesn't mean that we shouldn't do the best that we can to minimize those risks, just understanding that nothing's 100% perfect and we'll do the best that we can.

Doug: It's nature. Like you said, you could have the perfectly trimmed tree, but anything can happen. How about after the storm? I'm sure you guys are always running after a storm. I know you're always running after a storm. When you get to a property, if there's one thing that's an obvious thing, that that's why the homeowner's calling you there, then what else are you looking for?

Jason: Yes. It definitely becomes triage right after the storms. Let's get people's driveways open, make sure they can get out, get to the grocery store, wherever else they may need to go. A lot of times we're there just opening the driveway or just getting something off the house. The rest of the cleanup may happen a little bit later. We hope with most customers, that they're going to give us the opportunity to do a much more thorough property check. Sometimes these people have not had an experience with Davey before. They don't know what we typically do.

Perhaps it's insurance related and their immediate concern is, "Get the tree off my house. Let's get the roof patched." A lot of times the rest of the checks are forgotten. We try to talk to people about that when we're on site, let them know, hey, we're going to help you out right now, but let's take a little bit of time in the future and see if we can't prevent this for you. A lot of times after going through an experience like that, people are much more receptive to the idea of the preventative care because it's not fun. No matter how good your arborist is and how good your roofer is, dealing with that kind of stuff is just not fun.

Doug: When you do go back, I guess it's just the same inspection, right? You're looking for any problems that you might normally see whether it was before or after a storm.

Jason: Yes. A lot of that is very standard. We're going to look at general condition of the trees, health, is there decay? Do we have broken limbs? The thing that gets a little bit difficult and especially when you're talking about ice is all that weight on limbs can do things without actually breaking or maybe causing some really obvious issues. It is really important to have an arborist come out. There are certain things as a homeowner you can pay attention to.

All the branches should generally be going up and if you see a branch that's pointing down, that probably means there's a problem even if you can't see the break. What you don't necessarily know as a homeowner is that sometimes the amount a branch has stretched is weakening it. Now you have branches that maybe aren't broken, but they are no longer in the same direction that they were prior to the storm. They're going to be more prone to potential failure. There are cracks and things that can't be seen from the ground either. Just knowing how the tree should grow and should behave, an arborist can tell you, hey, that's not right, something's going on, even if we can't see it from the ground.

Doug: This time of the year, we always see storms coming across the country. Instead of a snow event for us, it's becoming more common in the winter to have a rain event. Luckily this time of the year, there's no leaves on the trees, so if we get a rain event with wind, I'm not that worried about it, but I am worried about all that rain and shallow rooted trees just falling over. I've got plenty of shallow rooted trees. Talk a little bit about that.

Jason: Yes. We have a lot of evergreens in PA in general. They're very common as border plantings, things like that for privacy. They do a great job. They're evergreen, so they do hold their needles throughout the season, which does mean they're going to collect a little bit more snow, ice, what have you, in those situations. They also are shallow rooted, just like you said. If we get a lot of rain before, during, after a storm and the ground is saturated, then we're going to run into a potential of that canopy that does have the needles, which might not catch quite as much wind as a deciduous tree, but still catch more wind than a tree with nothing on it, is going to be more prone with those saturated soils to uprooting.

Those are important. Again, when we're talking about potential failures, if we have evergreens around targets, we want to make sure, are they in good health? Are we taking care of them? Is there anything that could be a concern that's going to leave them more prone to potential failure? Are they in a low spot that's going to get saturated? That's goes back to the very beginning where right tree, right place is really important. A lot of times as a homeowner, you're not always there when the trees are originally planted. Have someone come out, do that inspection, talk through those things with you and find out, what are my potential risks?

Doug: That's where I wanted to go next, we roll into the spring here, about planting the right tree in the right place and considering the mature size of a tree and considering a winter storm, summer storms. Where you put that tree, if you have a choice, is very important.

Jason: Absolutely. Trees provide incredible benefits to homeowners, shade, protection from wind. Things along those lines make it very desirable to have trees close to the house, but they do need to be the right tree and they do need to be not too close to the house. While they're three feet, when you put them in, what is that mature size going to be? Certainly, there are plenty of excellent landscapers out there that can help you with a lot of those questions. A lot of times they may not have an idea though how things are going to look and be when they're mature. You may want to engage an arborist as well to get a better feel for what those trees are going to be like, and if it is the right tree for the right place.

There are certainly plenty of trees that I would feel comfortable having planted close to my home, but also I'm living in my home. I'm not living in your home. You need to have a level of comfort there too. I think if you plan from the beginning and really have confidence in who it is that's helping you come up with that plan, you won't have to worry when the wind blows.

Doug: At your house, what would you consider to plant relatively close to the house in your specific situation?

Jason: I have a large pin oak out back, probably 90 feet tall, and it's about 35 feet away from my house. I pay attention to it when the wind blows and we prune it for deadwood and we fertilize it to make sure that it's healthy, but it's far enough away. With the height, it provides me with a lot of nice shade in my backyard. It's perfect when we're grilling out on the deck in the summer, exactly what I would want.

Being an oak, it's a hardwood, so it's definitely got strong trunk, strong branch attachments. I've got a great root flare on it. It was never disturbed by construction or anything like that. Really, for me, I got lucky. It's a perfect tree to have that close to my house. I'm very comfortable with something like that.

Doug: What is it like for you and your team when a storm is forecasted for your area? Do you think like we do? We always think like, "Ah, they said eight inches or an ice storm. It'll probably pass. It'll just be rain. They're just making a big deal out of nothing." I would think it would have to be a little bit different for you guys because I'm thinking you're going to have to hit the ground running, and that expectation of what's coming has to be a little bit unnerving, I would think.

Jason: It is. We definitely have lots of team meetings before a storm event, make sure that everything's prepared, trucks are fueled, we're ready if there's snow, we've got plows ready to go so we can get out and be safe. We have guys that travel decent distance, sometimes. Depending on what the storm's looking like, they may stay at a friend or relative's house that's a little bit closer to the office so that they minimize their commute. There are certainly times when we've had bad enough storms where the guys with four-wheel drive vehicles are out and about doing the pickup to really minimize how many cars we're putting on the road, minimize the risk, and get us to our first work site, which is our office, safely.

Then we dispatch from there. It, again, is really sort of a triage situation. Planning goes a long way. Our guys know what our expectations are. We have some very concrete rules about we don't go out and even look at storm damage in the dark because you miss something that could be somebody's life, and we're not going to put our guys at that risk. We want to do everything safely. Downed conductors is a huge thing for us. We run into them all the time in storm events. We treat every conductor as if it were energized. Even if there's no power in the entire neighborhood, generators, if they're not hooked up correctly can backfeed. Certainly, plenty of people have gotten pretty hurt with stuff like that.

We review all that stuff with the crews, make sure that it's top of mind. We have safety briefings every single day when we're dealing with a storm event, whereas normally we would do it maybe once a week. Just make sure that we're ready. Then, as we're getting out, a lot of my sales arborists will actually carry a saw with them. The battery-powered chainsaws are great because you can just throw them in the back of any vehicle. You don't have to worry about gas, smell, or anything like that inside the cab. If you got to go open up Mrs. Jones's driveway so she can get to the doctor's office or the pharmacy or whatever it might be, we can do that pretty quickly and safely. Then we go from there.

Doug: I've never talked about a battery-powered chainsaw. Can they do what they need to do compared to some of those chainsaws that you guys are normally using? When I see these guys working here, man, that's a big machine. I guess nowadays, a battery-powered chainsaw can do what needs to be done, I'm sure, depending on the size of the tree, right?

Jason: Yes, absolutely. Battery-powered chainsaws still have a bit of a stigma about them because they're battery-powered. The gas engines tend to have a little bit more power and things like that, but they've come a long way. There are some very powerful battery-powered chainsaws, especially at the professional level. They may not be perfect for storm damage all the time. They're good for opening up the driveway, something like that. When you get into big trunks that you're cutting through, gas-powered still leads in those areas. The battery-powered, in terms of longevity, as a daily user for our climbing arborists, have a whole lot of benefits.

You're not pull-starting them every day, which puts a lot of stress on your shoulders and your wrists. You don't have the same vibration that you do with a gas-powered saw that's running. You don't have the fumes. There's just a million reasons that for a professional arborist, the battery-powered saw has a lot of benefits.

Doug: Let's talk about when a storm comes through and talk about chainsaw safety for a regular homeowner. A regular homeowner doesn't usually have the right safety gear for using a chainsaw. Tell me a little bit about everything you guys use to stay safe with a chainsaw. We already know you've been trained to use it, but physically, the safety things that you have to make sure that those guys are safe.

Jason: Yes. Our personal protective equipment, or our PPE, is our last line of defense. We go through all the training and everything, and hopefully you're doing everything safe from the beginning. For a homeowner, that may be the only level of real defense that they have, is the personal protective equipment. All the more important to make sure that kind of stuff is in place. Chainsaws themselves have a lot of safety features on them.

The biggest one is to help prevent kickback. It's a chain break, and if it's functioning properly and you're using a saw that gets pinched, or you touch something with the tip of the saw where you get kicked back, that chain break is going to hit against your wrist, assuming that you're holding the chainsaw properly. When it does that, it stops the chain from moving. That's a pretty big deal on the chainsaw.

A lot of homeowners might have a saw that came from Uncle Joe and is 150 years old, and might not have those safety features. Good idea to make sure that if you are going to be using a chainsaw, it's something modern, has the right safety features. Beyond that, we're always wearing a hard hat or a helmet because there's so much, especially when you're talking storms, that could be up above you, that even when you're taking a look, you don't know. That's a great idea. Certainly safety glasses. You got to go protect your eyes. Hearing protection, another thing, you got to go protect your hearing. Gloves, always a good idea.

We do recommend gloves that are not gauntlet style, so they don't have that cuff that can potentially get caught on things. Something with a tighter wrist that is going to fit your hand a little bit better, not get caught on brush or other things. We always wear chaps. I know that that's something that most homeowners probably are not going to wear, but that's leg protection that's made out of Kevlar. It's made so that if a chainsaw does kick back into your legs, it binds up the chain itself, and will stop it from rotating before it cuts you or before it cuts you to the point where you're going to need medical attention in most cases. Those are priceless.

It's, again, something maybe not every homeowner would have, but something I'd highly recommend if you're going to do any sort of real chainsaw work on your own. Then I think the last thing is good pair of footwear, having good traction, knowing that you've got a good stable balance when you're out there so that hopefully you don't slip. All goes a long way.

Doug: Jason, as we finish up, I have one more question for you. What is the feeling for you and the team when that storm goes south or north of you? [chuckles]

Jason: There's definitely a bit of a sigh of relief. Everybody thinks that every arborist loves it when a storm comes through, and I can assure you for me and my team, that is not the case. Reason being, we are into tree preservation. We love trees, so we hate to see them damaged to begin with, but we've also seen a lot of really tough circumstances where people are in a really bad spot. Everybody thinks they fully understand their insurance coverage. I would encourage you, if you don't know what your insurance coverage is around trees, probably worth a conversation.

May not be what you think it is, and we hate seeing people in those spots. We want to help out as many people as we can as quickly as we can and as safely as we can. We'll do that when a storm comes through, but we just as soon not have to deal with that and have everybody be whole and maintain their trees at their own will.

Doug: Well, that sounds great, Jason. As always, it was great to talk to you. Thanks for sharing all that information. I know we will talk again soon.

Jason: All right. Sounds good. Thanks a lot, Doug.

Doug: Tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Do me a favor, subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss an episode. We are getting lots of ideas and comments about the show, so send us an email to podcasts@davey.com. That’s P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S@D-A-V-E-Y dot C-O-M and as always, we like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

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