How You Can Prepare:
Trees:
– Shake trees to remove snow to prevent breakage. For the higher unreachable branches, use a painter pole or broom to reach up and shake off the snow.
– Be cautious around downed tree limbs and power lines; don’t go near any wires on the ground. Always assume a downed line is energized and therefore dangerous. Contact your local electric service provider immediately should you experience a downed electrical line or a tree has fallen on the line. If a power line has fallen onto a vehicle, stay away and seek help immediately by calling 911. Swingle’s tree removal service can help with damaged and fallen trees.
Plants:
– Cover plants (vegetables and flowers) with a cloth sheet or light blanket, held up with garden stakes or large pots to protect flowers or plants from freeze damage. If you have flowers in gardening pots bring them in the garage or mudroom. Get creative; buckets, planters, and pots work well when you turn them upside-down. Do NOT use a sheet of plastic to cover plants.
Sprinkler Systems:
– Protect your sprinkler system: If you can drain the back-flow preventer, do it, then wrap it with a towel and cover with a trash bag or sheet of plastic. If you can’t drain the back-flow, proceed with wrapping it with the towel and plastic. Swingle recommends having sprinkler systems winterized and blown out by the end of October.
If you have any storm damage or need tree services due to a storm, contact Swingle as soon as possible or fill out the quote form below.
Our Approach:
Each storm is different and can present a variety of challenges however one thing remains the same, our top priority is community safety. Ideally, our teams will simultaneously address any storm damage and perform scheduled tree work. Depending on the volume of damage caused by a storm, we may temporarily suspend normal tree work and focus on storm damage. When this occurs, we complete the storm work as quick as humanly possible and re-schedule our normal tree work so that we may complete the service(s) soon thereafter.
During storm operations, our focus is to address any safety issues first. We remove the hazard and move onto the next situation. Brush (limbs & debris) isn’t a concern at this point and most likely will be picked up at a later date. Swingle will not pick up brush or debris we haven’t generated.
