If anything is touching a power line, stop here and call the utility. Austin Energy: 512-322-9100. Assume every downed wire is live, and keep everyone back from the tree as well as the wire, because wood conducts when it is wet.
The first hour
Get people out from underneath. A limb that has stopped moving is not finished moving. Anything resting on a roof can settle further, and rooms below it are the ones to empty.
Photograph everything before it moves. This is the step people skip and regret. Wide shots showing the tree and the damage in one frame, close shots of the break and where the trunk grew, and photographs of anything wet inside the house. Once a tree is in the chipper, there is no evidence left, and an adjuster will not take your description of it.
Do not pull at anything. A limb bent under a trunk or hung up in another tree holds real stored energy. That releases without warning when cut wrong, and it is how people end up in hospital after the storm rather than during it.
The first few hours
Open the insurance claim. Before repairs start, not after. Ask specifically about the debris removal limit, which is usually capped around $500 to $1,000 even when the removal costs more, and about the roof repair, which is covered separately and far more generously. Detail in does homeowners insurance cover tree removal in Texas.
Make it safe, and keep the receipt. Getting a tarp over an opening is something your policy expects of you, and it pays for it. That is a stopgap, not a repair, and you still need a roofer.
Call a tree crew and be precise. Tell them what the tree is touching. That single detail decides where you sit in the queue when the whole of Austin is calling at once.
What counts as urgent
| Situation | Priority |
|---|---|
| Tree on a house, garage or car | Tonight |
| Trunk snapped, hung up in another tree | Tonight |
| Soil lifting at the base | Tonight, keep clear |
| Tree blocking your only access | Same day |
| Split leader over a patio | Same day |
| Large limb on the lawn, touching nothing | Scheduled |
| Debris across the garden | Scheduled |
An honest crew will tell you which row you are in. Paying a night premium for a limb that could safely wait until Tuesday helps nobody but the company.
Be careful who knocks on your door
Storm-chasing crews follow weather into Texas, and after a big Austin event they are on the streets within a day. Some are fine. Some take a deposit and are never seen again, and a few do genuine damage and disappear before anyone notices.
Four questions, and all of them are reasonable to ask a stranger in your driveway. Can you show me a certificate of insurance with general liability and workers’ compensation? What is your business address? Can I have the price in writing before you start? Will you take payment on completion rather than up front?
A crew that will not answer those has answered them. Texas does not license tree services at state level, so the insurance certificate is the real check. If an uninsured worker is hurt on your property, the exposure can become yours.
What can be saved
More than people assume in the first panicked hour. A live oak or cedar elm that has lost one limb cleanly will be fine with a proper cut back to the collar. A tree that has lost up to about a third of its canopy on one side will look lopsided for a few years and then fill in.
What does not recover: a trunk split down the middle, more than half the canopy gone, any lifting of the root plate, or a crack running into the main stem. Those come down. A good crew will tell you the difference rather than selling you the removal. See storm damage tree removal.
Before the next one
Central Texas storms tend to find the same weaknesses: dense unthinned canopies on loosened root plates, old Arizona ash, and Bradford pear with split-prone unions. Thinning a canopy so wind passes through it costs a fraction of a removal and genuinely helps, particularly on the clay east of I-35 through Pflugerville and Round Rock.
Tree down now? Send photos and say what it is touching. We document every storm job before the first cut and send you the set for your adjuster.