Episode transcript
This is Emergency Tree Longview, and this episode is for the person standing in a driveway or a living room right now looking at a pine where a roof used to be. If that is you and you would rather talk to a person than listen to a podcast, call us at (903) 500-7845. That's (903) 500-7845. We answer storm nights. For everyone else, stay with me for about six minutes and you'll know what to do in the first day, what to photograph, and what your Texas homeowners policy is actually going to pay for.
The first ten minutes are about people, not the tree
Get everyone out of the room the tree came through, and out of the rooms next to it. A loblolly that has punched through a roof is usually still moving. It settles as rafters give, and the second drop is what hurts people.
If you smell gas, leave the house and call the gas company from outside. If the tree took the service drop off the wall, the wire that runs from the pole to your house, treat every wire on the ground as live. In Longview and most of Gregg County that line belongs to SWEPCO, and their outage line is 888-216-3523. Here's a detail that surprises people. SWEPCO owns the wire up to your house, but the mast and the weatherhead on the wall are usually yours. If the tree tore the mast off, an electrician has to fix that before power can be restored, and that is a separate bill from the tree.
Then, before anyone moves a single limb, take pictures. Wide shots with the tree and the house together. Close shots of where it went in. The base of the tree, especially if it uprooted. The sky, the rain, the standing water. This is the single thing that makes a claim go smoothly, and once the tree is gone you cannot get those pictures back.
Why Longview trees go over the way they do
Most established lots here sit under loblolly and shortleaf pine that run eighty to a hundred feet tall. Loblollies are shallow rooted for their height, and they grow in red clay that holds water. So the common failure in this county is not a trunk snapping. It's the whole root plate tipping out of saturated clay in a straight-line wind. That matters for your claim, because an uprooted healthy tree in a storm is the textbook covered loss.
Our storm season runs March through June, and East Texas gets far more damage from straight-line winds out of squall lines than from tornadoes. Then there is ice. The February 2021 freeze and the ice storm in early 2023 loaded pine limbs until they snapped, and ice damage is listed right alongside wind in a standard Texas policy.
What insurance pays, and what it doesn't
The short version. If wind, hail, lightning, or ice put the tree on a covered structure, your own policy pays for the repair and for getting the tree off the structure, minus your deductible. That holds even if the tree was your neighbor's. Texas treats a healthy tree falling in weather as an act of nature, so each homeowner files with their own carrier.
The part that stings is the yard. If a second tree came down in the same storm and landed in open grass, hitting nothing, most policies will not pay to remove it. Removal is covered when the tree hits something covered. That's the rule, and no crew standing in your driveway can change it.
Two timing facts worth knowing. Texas gives you a window of about two years to bring a claim under most policies, so nobody should pressure you into signing anything tonight. On the other side, once you report, the Texas prompt payment rules require the insurer to acknowledge your claim within fifteen days. Report early, sign nothing you haven't read.
What to authorize tonight, and what to wait on
Tonight is mitigation. Get a tarp over the hole so the next band of rain does not ruin the drywall and the floors. Get weight off the load point if a limb is bearing on a wall. That is expected by every adjuster, it is reimbursable, and it can be done in the dark.
Full removal is a daylight job. Nobody can see the whole tree at midnight, and cutting a trunk that is bearing on a rafter without seeing what it holds up is how a roof problem becomes a wall problem. Emergency work also bills at a higher rate. Stabilize tonight, remove tomorrow, and you pay the premium on the small job instead of the big one.
Ask for an itemized invoice. Stabilization, removal, and cleanup on separate lines. Adjusters map each line to a different part of the policy, and one lump number is the fastest way to get a claim kicked back for more information.
A word about who shows up
After every big blow, from Kilgore to Gladewater to Hallsville, out-of-area trucks roll through the neighborhoods knocking on doors. Some are fine. Texas does not license tree services, so the only real check you have is asking for proof of insurance, in writing, from the insurer, before a saw starts. Get the scope and the price on paper. Pay when the work is done, not before.
What to do right now
Get people out of the damaged rooms. Treat wires as live and call SWEPCO if the line is down. Photograph everything before anything moves. Call your insurer's claim line for a claim number. Then call for stabilization tonight and removal in daylight. The number is (903) 500-7845. Again, (903) 500-7845. This has been Emergency Tree Longview. We'll get a tarp on it and a crew moving.