Wind Sheer

60 foot ponderosa pine came into the house uninvited late Friday night.

Took three of us 12 hours to peel that sucker down off of there.

Anybody need a 30"x30' fencepost?

Allan

You must of moved. Never seen that may trees around there. Didn't know there was that many trees that far west.

Note to self:

Never buy real estate in the summertime for it’s aesthetic appeal. :>)

Allan

Did it puncture the roof at all

A couple of things, I also didn't know you had that many trees. Dad built a clamp like that on the bucket of our Ford loader 35 years ago. It was the greatest thing in the world for loading logs and land clearing debris. We had a gust like that at our farm last week and it blew over the out house.
Ron

Yeah,

Came into the bedroom in three places and snapped the upper wall joyce. Broke all the vents, skylight and that antenna.

So glad that there was a lot of foalage to help cushion it's landing. :>)

Allan

Have never seen a wind like that before. Don't think the thing lasted more than 12-15 seconds.

Lots and lots of trees around here leaning southwest now. :>)

Allan

Someway...somehow...make D-DOUBLE-DARN sure your insurance adjuster sees your roof trusses/rafters from the INSIDE attic/crawl space. Some may be "slightly" cracked and easily overlooked from the exterior.

Roofing shingles can "stand up" in a wind storm and then lay back down and appear to be normal. If you can slip index cards between the shingles, that is pretty good evidence that shingles are damaged...take lots of photos YOURSELF (for your personal files) showing/demonstrating damages...especially the roof and shingles. Pay particular attention to the side the wind came from over the whole length of the house as there well may be "wind damage" to shingles at the other end of the house. Wouldn't hurt a thing to check the off side while you are there.

"Windshear" is crazy....straight line gusts of winds that can mimic tornado damage. We have had both types of storms here in the Winston-Salem NC area in the 28 years I've lived here.

Keep an accurate record of your own (& neighbor's, etc.) labor...you should be compensated for that also

You might also check down to the foundation of the house for damages there also.

Did you have any water damage inside from rain that was "driven" into the structure??

Good luck...Rick

Yes Sir,

You know how insurance adjusters are. It'll be mid-morning Monday before we finally get around to listening to our answering machine messages. :>)

However, I needed to hurry and get the roof tarped. Has already rained twice since. :>)

Took pictures 30 directions from Sunday. Yep the whole south end of that house needs rebuilding clear down to the flooring under the carpet. :<(

Allan

Nice to see noone got hurt. A few weeks ago we had a heck of a storm. There's a house on top of a hill a few miles away from my place that had a few barns and a big patch of trees around it. After the storm there's just 1 barn and a house left. Crazy to see what wind can do

That will leave a mark! Glad nobody got hurt!

Could have been worse. When a wildfire went through my property, the fire marshal was telling me about the only house that was lost in the fire. Someone built their house right in the middle of a heavily treed area and there was no chance of saving it. They didn't even leave a 20 ft. clearing around the house. They could barely see the house from the air.

Has your opinion of tree shuggers changed? Are you going to plant trees next to your house again?

I had a similar problem 5 weeks ago and plan to remove all trees that can fall on my buildings as soon as I can aford it.

My insurance company paid over $21,000 and it cost me $2000 deductable.

Glad no one was injured.

Allan...some years back I served on the Board of Directors for a small mutual ins. company here in NC. After a rather devastating hurricane I was sent down to the eastern part of the state to "look/see" and report what I was seeing on some of the claims we were getting. Before long, I was settling some of the smaller claims under the watchful eyes of our claims department. If I felt "uncomfortable" I would set the claim aside for an "adjuster" to handle. You might say that I handled a lot of the "three squares of shingles and paint the LR. ceiling" type claims.

The whole experience was a real eye opener to me about "humanity"...both the honest & dishonest...the selfish and the generous...etc.

It makes no difference to the insurance company HOW MANY years you have been a customer...they are only obligated for what is in the contract/policy in force at the time of the loss. Now a long term relationship might get you a bit quicker service, but that would be about all. My comments in the above posting based on 9 yrs. on the board and several months of field experience after the hurricane..

You did the right thing by quickly getting the tree off the house and the blue tarps in place after photographically documenting your claim.

Good luck my friend...you are not alone!!

RICK

About 3 years ago we had roughly 70 trees removed to avoid that situation. Several maples, cedars, spruce, etc that were within striking range of our house, the neighbor's house, neighbor's shed, etc. probably 20-30 of the trees were in the 120 ft range, with many more between 80 and 120 ft. Scariest was a codominant western red cedar, 14 ft from the house and both trunks about 120 ft tall. Had it cut 12 ft up and the stump carved by a local artist. It now has 4 raccoons and a bear crawling on and around it.

I have a cousin that worked for Allied insurance as an adjuster. He says their first action in the event of a claim is to see if there is a way they can deny it. If they can't get out of the claim, they then take the "How low can we go and not end up in court?" approach.