A tree has come down on the house.

Get everyone out of that part of the house, and out of the building entirely if the tree came through a load bearing wall or the roof structure. If any part of it is touching a power line, call your utility’s emergency number and keep everyone at least thirty feet away from the tree and anything metal touching it.

Then wait. The most dangerous hour after a tree falls is the one where people start cutting it.

In the first hour

1. People out, then a headcount. Including anyone who was upstairs.
2. Utility first if a line is involved. They are the only ones who can make it safe, and they do it at no cost.
3. Gas next. If the tree lifted the ground near a service, or you smell gas, leave the building and call the gas utility from outside.
4. Do not go under it. A tree resting on a roof is being held up by something, and what it is held up by is now damaged.
5. Shut off water to the affected part if plumbing is involved, and drain the lines if a pipe has broken.
6. Photograph from a safe distance, from several angles, including the root plate and the ground.

What decides the next step

Is the building still holding itself up? Sagging ceilings, doors that will not close, cracks that were not there this morning, a floor that feels different: all of those mean a structural engineer or the building department before anyone works on it.

Is it still moving? A tree that is leaning rather than resting can shift. Wind is still moving it, and so does taking weight off the wrong end.

Is water getting in? That becomes the priority once the tree is stable, because a hole in a roof in ongoing weather does more cumulative damage than the impact did. Containing water coming through a ceiling.

Whose tree was it? Worth establishing, though it matters less than people expect. Which is covered in the insurance guide.

Do not cut it yourself

This is the part where people get hurt, and it is worth being blunt about why.

A fallen tree on a structure is under load. Trunks and limbs are compressed on one side and stretched on the other, and cutting into that releases the stored energy at once. A limb under tension can move faster than a person can. A trunk resting on a roof can roll when a branch is removed. Chainsaw injuries after storms are one of the most common storm injuries there is, and they happen to people who have used a chainsaw before.

Add to that: the tree may be the only thing holding a damaged roof in position.

Leave it for someone with rigging, and let them decide the order things come off in.

While you wait for someone

• Tarp what you safely can, from inside if there is any doubt, and never on a roof in wind or rain. What emergency tarping involves and who pays for it.
• Move contents out of the affected rooms, if entering them is safe.
• Put buckets under active drips and get containers with real capacity.
• Switch off the circuits for the affected rooms if the panel is dry and reachable.
• Keep people out with something physical, not just a warning. Close the door, and tell everyone in the household, twice.

Documenting it properly

Storms produce a lot of claims at once, and adjusters are stretched. Good documentation moves you up the queue and settles arguments before they start.

• Wide photographs of the whole building from each side.
• The tree, the root plate, and where it entered.
• Every affected room, wide then close.
• A short video walking the outside, narrating what you are seeing.
• Photographs of the street and neighboring properties, which corroborate the event.
• The date and time, and a screenshot of the weather warning for that day.
• Receipts for everything: tarps, a hotel, the tree service, the generator.

The full documentation habit is the same in every storm claim.

Calling it in

Report to your insurer the same day, even if you have no idea yet what the damage is. Ask three things: is emergency tree removal covered, is emergency tarping covered, and what is my deductible on this claim. That last one catches people out, because wind and hail deductibles are often a percentage rather than a flat amount.

Most policies pay for removing a tree that has hit a covered structure, often up to a modest limit, and many pay nothing to remove one that fell in the yard and hit nothing. That distinction is worth knowing before you authorize a crew.

The short version

People out, utility first if a line is touched, and nobody under the tree. Do not cut it. Photograph from a distance, contain water once it is stable, and report the same day. Ask specifically whether removal and tarping are covered and what your deductible actually is.