Tree on the house. Limb across the drive. Road to the barn blocked. This is the priority line — call, don't wait on a form.
If a tree or limb is touching a power line, or has pulled a line down — stop. Stay away from it, keep everyone else away, and call the power company or 911 before you call anyone about tree work. No tree service handles energized lines; that's utility work, and a downed line that looks dead can kill. Once the utility has made it safe, the tree work can start.
If part of the tree is through the roof, get everyone out from under that section of the house and make the calls from somewhere safe.
Down here, storm tree work comes in waves — a summer thunderstorm line, a tropical system pushing up from the Gulf, an ice night in January. When it's your house, the sequence is: make it safe, stop the damage from getting worse, then finish the removal. That can mean getting the weight off the structure first and tarping the hole before the full cleanup, so one more rain doesn't turn a roof problem into a living-room problem.
Be ready to describe what happened, what the tree is on, and whether you can get vehicles in and out. After a big blow, jobs get worked in order of danger — a tree on an occupied house comes before a limb on a fence, and honest sequencing is part of the service.
Before anything is moved: photograph everything, from several angles — the tree, the damage, the whole scene. Keep every receipt, including tarps and emergency work. Homeowner's policies often address sudden storm damage to structures differently than they treat the removal of a tree that simply fell in the yard, and every policy is its own animal — so confirm the specifics with your insurer before assuming anything is or isn't covered. What the tree professional can do is give you written documentation of the work, which your adjuster will want either way.
Genuine hazards — tree on a structure, access blocked, a hanger over where people walk — get priority over all routine work. After county-wide storms everyone is digging out at once, so jobs are sequenced by danger; when you call, describe the situation plainly and you'll get an honest timeline, not a promise nobody can keep.
As a general matter these situations get sorted between the two insurance companies, and the answer depends on the tree's condition and your specific policies. We can't give legal advice — document everything, notify your insurer, and let them coordinate. The removal itself works the same either way.
Ask on the call — getting the weight off and the opening tarped is a normal part of storm response, and it's the step that stops the damage from growing while the rest gets scheduled.
Storm damage now? Call — describe the tree, the damage, and the access.
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