The properties that come through a storm best are the ones where the work was done in May. Here’s what actually matters.
The properties that come out worst have three things in common: overgrowth right up against the structures, one access road with a canopy over it, and dead or leaning stems that everybody had noticed and nobody had dealt with.
All three are fixable in a day or two, in May, for a fraction of what the cleanup costs.
Every clearing contractor in this county is booked out the moment a system enters the Gulf, and afterwards everybody is booked for weeks. Late May is when this work is available, affordable and unhurried.
Walk the property with your phone before the season and photograph the structures, the outbuildings, the fences, the tree line and anything of value. Date-stamped. If you end up making a claim, before-photographs are worth a great deal and nobody ever has them.
Call the utility. Stay away.
Trees on structures, hung limbs and leaners are arborist work, not clearing work. A rigging job done with a clearing machine is how people get hurt.
Photograph before anything is moved, for your claim.
Ask your adjuster what they need before work starts, not after.
After every storm in this state there’s a wave of them. Ask for a local address, an insurance certificate and references, and don’t pay up front.
Call and you get John Williams, not an answering service and not a dispatcher. If it’s after hours or a Sunday, send the form and you’ll have a text back and a callback first thing.
