Storm Damage: What to Do in the First 24 Hours

The Short Answer

In the first hour after a tree comes down, keep everyone at least one tree-length clear, call 999 if anyone is injured or the tree is on a road or power line, and do not attempt to cut or move anything yourself. Once the area is secure, photograph everything before it is touched, notify your insurer, and call an insured emergency tree surgeon — the photographs taken before any clearance are usually the deciding evidence in a claim.

The first hour: make it safe

A tree that has partially failed is under load and behaves unpredictably. Branches held in tension can release with enough force to kill, root plates that have lifted can drop back, and a stem resting on a structure can shift as that structure gives. The correct first action is distance, not action.

Move everyone, including pets, at least one tree length away from the base and stay out of the area beneath any leaning stem or hanging limb. Close off the space with whatever you have — cones, bins, tape, a car parked across a driveway entrance — and make sure children cannot get to it in the dark.

If the tree is touching or has brought down electricity cables, treat the ground around it as live. Keep 10 metres clear, do not touch anything in contact with the tree, and call the distribution network operator’s emergency line on 105, which routes to the right operator anywhere in Great Britain. They must make the line safe before any tree work can begin, and no legitimate tree surgeon will start before they have.

Call 999 if anyone is injured or trapped, if a tree has struck an occupied building, if there is a gas smell, or if the tree is blocking a live carriageway where vehicles are still moving.

• 999 — injury, entrapment, tree on an occupied building, blocked live carriageway
• 105 — free national number for power lines down or in contact with a tree
• Local council highways — tree blocking a public road, pavement or council land
• National Highways / Traffic Scotland — motorways and trunk roads
• Your insurer’s 24-hour claims line — before clearance begins, not after
• An insured emergency tree surgeon — for everything on private land

Who is responsible for what

Responsibility follows ownership of the land the tree grew on, not the land it fell onto. If your tree has come down into a neighbour’s garden, clearing it is your responsibility. If theirs has come into yours, it is theirs. In practice, when both parties are insured, the insurers sort it out between themselves and the immediate priority is simply getting the site safe.

Trees on the public highway, in parks and on other council land are the local authority’s responsibility, and every council in our coverage area operates an out-of-hours emergency number for exactly this. Report it rather than attempting to clear it, even if it is blocking your access.

Damage caused to a neighbour by a genuinely healthy tree in an exceptional storm is normally treated as an act of God, and each party claims on their own policy. Damage caused by a tree that was visibly defective — where the owner knew or ought to have known — is a different matter and can support a negligence claim, which is why records of inspection and maintenance are worth keeping.

Evidence: photograph before anything moves

The single most valuable thing you can do in the first 24 hours, after making the area safe, is document it. Once a crew has cleared the tree, the evidence is gone, and reconstructing it for an insurer or a loss adjuster is far harder than capturing it now.

Photograph from several distances and angles: wide shots showing the tree in relation to the property, mid shots of the damage itself, and close-ups of the failure point on the stump or stem. Photograph the root plate if it has lifted. Include something for scale. Most phones record time and location data automatically, which is useful — do not strip it.

Keep everything else too. Written quotes for the emergency work and the follow-up, the invoice, any receipts for temporary repairs such as boarding or tarpaulin, and a written note of what the weather was doing. If a tree surgeon attends, ask for a short written statement of the condition of the tree and the apparent cause of failure; loss adjusters take that seriously.

Insurance: what is usually covered

Standard UK buildings insurance generally covers damage caused to the building by a falling tree or branch. Contents cover deals with items inside. Most policies also cover damage to walls, fences and gates caused by the tree, though fences are frequently subject to limits or excluded, and driveways and patios vary by policy.

The area that catches people out is removal cost. Many policies cover removing the tree only where it has actually damaged insured property. A large tree that has come down harmlessly across your lawn is frequently not covered at all, because there is no insured damage — the removal is a maintenance cost. Read the wording rather than assuming.

Two behaviours protect a claim. Notify the insurer before clearance begins, or as soon as it is safe to do so, and get authorisation for any emergency work that cannot wait; and keep the failed section of timber if the cause of failure is in question, because it can be inspected later. Insurers also routinely ask what maintenance history the tree had, which is another reason survey reports and job records earn their keep.

What emergency tree work involves

Emergency attendance is a different operation from a booked job. The team arrives to an unassessed, unstable situation and the first task is a dynamic risk assessment: what is under load, where the tension and compression are, what is likely to move, and whether the area can be worked at all before the network operator or the highway authority has attended.

Making safe usually comes before full clearance. That can mean removing the immediate hazard — a hanging limb, a stem resting on a roof — and stabilising the rest for a return visit in daylight with the right equipment. Where a tree is on a building, sections are often lifted off rather than cut through, to avoid dropping weight onto an already compromised structure.

Access and light dictate a great deal. Night work in a rear garden with a partially failed stem is more dangerous and slower than the same job at nine the next morning, and a competent firm will tell you honestly when waiting until first light is the safer choice. What should not wait is anything over a road, a pavement or an occupied part of a building.

Reducing the risk before the next storm

Most storm failures are not random. They happen at defects that were present and visible beforehand — decayed bases, included forks, previously topped trees with heavy regrowth, and trees whose root systems were severed by building work. A survey in a calm month identifies those and lets you deal with them at a booked rate rather than an emergency one.

The most effective preventative work is usually crown reduction to cut wind sail on tall, exposed or top-heavy trees, deadwood removal over targets, and bracing across weak unions. On declining ash, condition-led removal planned in advance is safer and cheaper than dealing with a brittle failed tree in February.

Practical housekeeping helps too: keep gutters and drains clear so ground does not become waterlogged around root plates, avoid piling soil or paving over the rooting area, and never let a contractor trench through the roots of a large tree without an arborist involved. After any named storm, walk your trees and look for new leans, fresh cracks and lifted soil, and photograph anything that has changed.

What to do when a tree comes down in a storm

The first 24 hours after storm damage, in the order that keeps people safe and protects an insurance claim.

1. 1

   Clear the area

   Move everyone and any pets at least one tree length from the base, stay out from under leaning stems and hanging limbs, and block off access so nobody wanders in after dark.

2. 2

   Call the right emergency number

   Dial 999 for injury, entrapment or a tree on an occupied building, and 105 for power lines down or touching the tree. Report trees on public roads or council land to the local authority's out-of-hours line.

3. 3

   Do not cut or move anything

   Storm-damaged trees hold stored energy in tension and compression. Cutting into a loaded limb without training is how people are seriously injured, and it can also invalidate an insurance claim.

4. 4

   Photograph everything before clearance

   Take wide, mid and close-up shots of the tree, the damage and the failure point, including the root plate if it has lifted, with something in frame for scale. Keep the location and timestamp data intact.

5. 5

   Notify your insurer

   Call the 24-hour claims line before clearance begins and get authorisation for any emergency work that cannot wait. Keep all quotes, invoices and receipts for temporary repairs.

6. 6

   Call an insured emergency tree surgeon

   Confirm public liability cover and NPTC certification before anyone starts. Expect the immediate hazard to be made safe first, with full clearance completed in daylight where that is the safer option.

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