Emergency Storm Tree Service in Akron, OH

Emergency storm tree service covers the calls nobody plans for: a limb through the roof, an oak across the driveway, a maple split down the middle and resting on the garage. In Akron those calls come in waves, after summer thunderstorms and derechos, and after wet snow or ice in late fall and early spring. On August 25, 2023, storms that produced six confirmed tornadoes in northeast Ohio knocked out power to about 220,000 FirstEnergy customers and dropped trees on houses, cars and roads around Akron. Work after a storm is sorted by danger, and a tree resting on a structure always goes first.

First: stay safe

If a tree is touching a wire, or a wire is down anywhere near it, stay well back and assume the line is live. Report it to Ohio Edison at 1-888-544-4877 or by texting OUT to 544487, and call 911 if anyone is in danger. Don't try to pull a limb off a line or cut a tree that's under tension. Trunks and limbs bent under the weight of another tree can spring back hard when cut, which is a common cause of serious chainsaw injuries.

What happens on an emergency call

The first job is making the situation stable: getting the weight off the house or car without letting it drop further, and taking down hanging limbs (hangers) that could fall on someone. That often means rigging the tree in place and lifting or lowering pieces in a set order. A crane is sometimes the safest way to lift a large trunk off a roof without further damage. Once the tree is off, any opening in the roof can be covered by a roofer or by you while the rest of the cleanup is scheduled.

Trees that survived but aren't right

After the cleanup, look at the trees that are still standing. Split forks, cracked trunks, a crown that suddenly leans, roots lifted out of the soil on one side, and limbs snapped high in the canopy can all fail in the next storm. Some of those can be pruned or cabled; some need to come down. We'll walk the rest of the yard while we're there.

Insurance and paperwork

Many homeowners policies help pay for removing a tree that fell on a covered structure, often with a set limit per tree; a tree that falls in the yard without hitting anything usually isn't covered. Check your own policy and talk with your agent. Take photos before anything is moved if it's safe to do so, and we'll give you an itemized written invoice that describes the work.

City trees after a storm

If the fallen tree or limb came from a city tree in the devil strip or blocks the street, report it to the City of Akron at 311 (330-375-2311 from a cell phone). The city's Parks Maintenance forestry crew handles storm damage cleanup for street trees in the right-of-way.