What to Do if a Tree Falls on Your House

The first thing you need to have ready is an evacuation plan. This way, everyone in your home knows how to exit the house as quickly and safely as possible. This evac plan should be practiced regularly with your family before a situation arises that could cause a tree to fall through your house.

The next part of your evac plan is a bug-out bag. Bug-out bags aren’t just for doomsday preppers either. As a part of your evacuation plan, you should have a bug-out bag filled with emergency supplies, important documents, some money, car keys, and other items that your family considers essential. This bag will ensure that you and your family have everything you need should you have to leave your home in a hurry until the danger has passed.

Let’s move on to once a tree actually does fall on your house. First and foremost, don’t try to handle the tree or limbs yourself. Many different factors make this an unwise decision. The tree could’ve broken power lines, creating an electrically-charged area around the impact area that could prove fatal. The tree may have compromised the structural integrity of your home, making it unsafe to approach the tree as well. Not to mention, the tree or limb itself could be unstable, so handling it could lead to a fall or cause more limbs to fall.

After you’ve followed through with your evacuation plan, call 911 and tell emergency services what happened. They can advise you on further steps for your specific situation, they’ll send out a fire crew or utility crew to check that your home is safe, and they’ll check for broken power lines surrounding your home and the fallen tree.

Once your family is safe, and the emergency services have been notified, it’s time to start the recovery process. This begins by calling up your insurance company. Most home insurance policies will cover at least some of the damage caused by storm debris, including tree removal when one falls. However, keep in mind that if the tree falling is even partially due to negligence, your insurance may cover less or not cover any of the damage. For example, if a rotten tree falls because the homeowner failed to address it in time, the tree falling is a result of negligence.

Your insurance company may recommend a roofing contractor to come and quickly cover any exposed areas or broken windows to prevent further weather-related damage from occurring. Once the place is safe, you should take photos of the damage at different angles. Have these photos ready to show your insurance company.

With everything in place, including yourself, your family, emergency services, and your insurance company, the only thing left to do is get in touch with a local roofing contractor. Having a trusted, dependable roofing contractor ready will help you get a jump start on repairing your home as soon as it’s safe to do so.

If you put off getting in touch with a roofing contractor, you may wind up settling for the first roofer you find after you get the go-ahead to start fixing the damage. This can be a risky and irresponsible choice to hire a contractor without doing any research. Take the time to do some research and make some phone calls while you wait for the all-clear. Once you feel comfortable with your roofer, you can sit back and wait for the damage to be repaired so you can back into your home!