Ottawa gets its share — the 2018 tornadoes, the 2022 derecho, and the wet spring snow that quietly does more cumulative limb damage than either. If a tree has come down or split on your property, the first ten minutes matter more than the next ten days.
Step 1: the power line rule, before anything else
If any part of the tree is touching a hydro wire, or if a wire is down anywhere on your property, stay at least 10 metres away — about 33 feet, the length of a school bus — from the wire and from anything touching it, including water, fences, vehicles and the tree itself.
Then, per Hydro Ottawa: call 9-1-1 first, then Hydro Ottawa at (613) 738-6400.
Treat every downed line as live. A line that is not arcing or sparking is not a line that is safe; ground around a downed conductor can be energized several metres out. If a line has fallen on your car, stay inside unless there is fire. To get out, open the door with the handle only, jump clear with both feet together without touching the car and the ground at the same time, then shuffle away with your feet together until you are past 10 metres.
No tree company can legally work on an energized line. If a contractor offers to, that is the end of the conversation.
Step 2: decide what is actually urgent
Not everything that looks bad is dangerous, and some things that look survivable are not.
Urgent — same day:
- Any contact with a hydro line (see above).
- A tree or large limb resting on a roof, wall or vehicle. Weight that is already bearing on a structure can shift.
- A hung-up limb — a broken branch caught in the canopy above. These come down without warning, in no predictable direction, and they are the classic cause of injury in the days after a storm.
- A tree that has partly uprooted. Look for soil heaving or cracking on the side opposite the lean. A partly failed root plate can complete the failure in the next gust.
- A split trunk or a torn major union with the tree still standing.
Can wait a few days:
- A tree fully down in an open part of the yard, touching nothing.
- Small broken branches on the ground.
- Torn bark or a stripped limb stub with no structural involvement.
Step 3: document it before you touch it
Photograph everything before any cleanup: the tree, the damage, the position, wide shots and close shots. If there is any chance of an insurance claim, those photographs are the claim. Five minutes of photos before the chainsaw starts is worth more than any argument afterwards.
Step 4: the insurance reality
Speak to your own insurer rather than relying on what a neighbour was told, but the general pattern in Ontario is worth knowing.
If the tree damaged a structure — house, garage, fence — the damage is usually covered, and removal of the tree from the structure often is too. If the tree simply fell in the yard and hit nothing, removal is commonly not covered; policies tend to treat that as maintenance. Whose tree it was matters less than people expect — in most cases you claim on your own policy for damage to your own property, even when the tree came from next door.
Ask your insurer two specific questions: is debris removal covered, and is there a separate limit for it? That limit is where these claims usually pinch.
Step 5: what not to do yourself
Storm-damaged wood is under tension in ways that undamaged wood is not, and that is what hurts people.
A bent-over sapling, a split trunk, a limb pinned under another — all of these store energy. Cut in the wrong place and the wood releases it in a fraction of a second, in a direction you did not choose. Chainsaw injuries spike after storms, and they overwhelmingly happen to competent people doing routine cuts on wood that is not behaving routinely.
Three specific things to leave alone: anything under tension or compression, anything above your head, and anything you would need a ladder for. A chainsaw and a ladder is the single most dangerous combination in yard work.
Clearing brush on the ground away from the trunk is reasonable. Everything else is worth a phone call.
Step 6: not every damaged tree has to go
This is where an assessment earns its keep, because the emotional response after a storm is to take everything down.
Often saveable: a tree that has lost one large limb but kept its main structure and most of its crown; a tree with torn bark on a single side; a tree with a suspect union that can be cabled and braced rather than removed. Cabling a mature tree with a weak fork costs a fraction of removing it, and it keeps a tree you could not replace in twenty years — particularly the silver maples along the rivers in Arnprior and Rockland.
Usually not saveable: a trunk split into the main stem; more than roughly half the crown gone; a root plate that has lifted; a tree leaning into a target with soil movement at the base.
The permit question after a storm
Ottawa’s Tree Protection By-law 2020-340 exempts emergency hazard removals, so a genuinely dangerous storm-damaged tree does not have to wait on a permit. Photograph the condition before the work anyway — that is your record of why the exemption applied. A damaged but stable tree is a different matter and may still need a permit at 30 cm or more. Permit thresholds and exemptions in full →
Before the next one
Most storm failures are predictable if anyone looks. The recurring patterns we see across Ottawa: narrow V-shaped forks with bark trapped inside them, which look sound until the day they split; dead ash, which sheds limbs unpredictably and is everywhere; dense unthinned crowns on Norway maple, which catch wet snow like a sail; and shallow-rooted trees on the marine clay through Barrhaven, which tip whole rather than shedding limbs after a saturated spring.
A crown thinning before winter costs a fraction of an emergency callout after one.
If you need us now
Storm damage and hazardous trees move to the front of our schedule. For anything urgent, call (613) 715-0103 rather than using the contact form — the phone is faster. And if a wire is involved, call 9-1-1 and Hydro Ottawa first.
How emergency removal works → · Get a free quote →
Quick answers
A branch is hanging in my tree after the storm – how urgent is that?
Urgent. A hung-up limb caught in the canopy can release at any moment and in any direction, and it is the most common cause of injury in the days after a storm. Keep people and vehicles out from under it and get it taken down.
Does home insurance cover storm tree removal in Ontario?
Generally, if the tree damaged a structure, both the damage and getting the tree off it are usually covered. If it fell in the yard and hit nothing, removal is commonly treated as maintenance and not covered. Ask your insurer specifically about debris-removal limits.
My neighbour’s tree fell on my house – whose insurance pays?
In most cases you claim on your own policy for damage to your own property, regardless of where the tree grew. Photograph everything before cleanup and let the insurers sort out the rest.
Can a split tree be saved?
Sometimes. A tree that lost one large limb but kept its structure and most of its crown often recovers, and a suspect union can be cabled and braced for a fraction of the cost of removal. A trunk split into the main stem, or a lifted root plate, generally cannot.
Deciding between an owner-operator, a large company and a handyman? Read how to choose a tree service in Ottawa.
Need it dealt with now? See emergency tree removal in Ottawa: what counts as urgent, what a storm callout costs (1.5x the published schedule), and the by-law hazard exemption.
Max Trees publishes its prices: see the full 2026 price schedule for Ottawa tree removal, pruning and stump grinding.