Recovering from a bad storm

On 11 July 2020 the city I live in was damaged by a microburst. Hail the size of golf balls was seen. Two house in my area had tree fall though there roofs. I had damage to my home but I view myself as "Damn Lucky" that it was not really bad. The last two weeks I have been clearing up the mess. Most if not all the wood from the storm was burn and a few log were taken  to be milled. Here are my question:

1. How can the community replant trees to prevent tree damage to homes?

2. As a home owner what can I do with the downed trees in my yard besides burning them and using in hugelkultur?

3. How can a community come out of the storm better?

The Monday after the storm people were helping out. About two day after the help started to disappear. A week after no one but the city crew was doing anything to clear up.

T,  I will try to answer some of your questions.

1)  When replanting trees, consider the prevailing winds.  For example, by me the strongest winds come from either the south or especially the west.  When replanting, consider planting trees on the western side (or whatever is appropriate for you) farther from the house.

2)  If you search these forums, there are endless uses for wood.  Obviously it could become firewood.  And you already mentioned lumber.  Personally I would love to be able to chip up a bunch of that wood and get a great big pile of woodchips.  I also had a terrible storm come through my area back in 2009--we had sustained winds of 100mph and we had a tremendous amount of fallen trees.  I too burned a lot at the time not really knowing what to do with all the wood.  But I did eventually save some of the trunks and used them for raised beds for my gardens.

3)  Just my thoughts here.  The strongest friendships are formed when two or more people are working towards a common objective or working to overcome a common obstacle.  Consider just going over to help a neighbor cleaning up some of his mess.  I am sure he will remember the kindly offered gesture and want to repay it in the future.  Working on a project with companionship is a whole lot easier that doing the chore by oneself.  And right there you have a friendship formed/strengthened.


Anyhow, these are just a few thoughts I had regarding your inquiry.  I am sure that others can expand on these points.

Good luck,

Eric

Eric has given you some great advice.

I can't offer much though I wanted to say this may be a good time to plant fruit trees.

When planting trees it might be good to consider how big they will be when they mature.  Placing them far away from the house so that limbs don't fall on the roof.

Eric Hanson wrote:T,  I will try to answer some of your questions.

1)  When replanting trees, consider the prevailing winds.  For example, by me the strongest winds come from either the south or especially the west.  When replanting, consider planting trees on the western side (or whatever is appropriate for you) farther from the house.

2)  If you search these forums, there are endless uses for wood.  Obviously it could become firewood.  And you already mentioned lumber.  Personally I would love to be able to chip up a bunch of that wood and get a great big pile of woodchips.  I also had a terrible storm come through my area back in 2009--we had sustained winds of 100mph and we had a tremendous amount of fallen trees.  I too burned a lot at the time not really knowing what to do with all the wood.  But I did eventually save some of the trunks and used them for raised beds for my gardens.

3)  Just my thoughts here.  The strongest friendships are formed when two or more people are working towards a common objective or working to overcome a common obstacle.  Consider just going over to help a neighbor cleaning up some of his mess.  I am sure he will remember the kindly offered gesture and want to repay it in the future.  Working on a project with companionship is a whole lot easier that doing the chore by oneself.  And right there you have a friendship formed/strengthened.


Anyhow, these are just a few thoughts I had regarding your inquiry.  I am sure that others can expand on these points.

Good luck,

Eric

Good points. I have thought about replanting tree with smaller tree species. For example, if a big Oak (Quercus) was planted close to a house and is now coming down. Why not replant with a Red Bud (Cercis canadensis). That way if another storm was to come the risk of a tree falling on the home would be less. When I was clearing up from the storm I saw that the tree canopy had decreased. A new area for a garden is in the making.