100 Foot Eucalyptus Crunched my Duplex

[Shane Pearlman]

It would seem that this year needed to go out in a bang! Last night we had a severe windstorm which brought down a giant eucalyptus tree in our neighbors yard, taking down the power lines and landing onto my duplex. Thankfully no one has been hurt and overall, the property withstood the hit remarkably well. 

PG&E + the fire department came out quickly to deactivate the live wires. Then they left.

The property from which the tree originated is also a rental and I am in process of working with the tenants to track down the owner. It would appear that the managing owner died about a month ago and we are trying to get a hold of his estranged wife who inherits control.

I have called my insurance agent and she said they are happy to help, but that if I can get the other property owner's insurance, then it saves me the deductible as it should be covered under their policy.

Right now, I have a giant tree sitting in the back yard, intermingled with power lines, pushing up against the house / on top of the shed. I am not quite sure what is the next step. 

I have not been able to get through to a PG&E person yet due to the impact of the storm. Clearly PG&E comes at some point to restore power to the neighborhood. Do they trim and remove the tree at that point, or just clip the minimum and put the poles back up?

I sat down with the tenants today and they feel safe / are being cared for. The house is livable (once power resumes) and my rents are safe.  I know I need to get someone's insurance company out to review the damage. Do I bring out my own contractors or wait for insurance to assess?

Is there any value in the wood? Is it worth trying to sell it for firewood or furniture wood?Where in the process do I get an arborist to come clean out the yard if PG&E doesn't do it? Do I do it or try to wait for the other (absent) owner to deal with it?

Has anyone been through something similar and is there anything I should know / do / avoid from your experience? Thanks ahead of time for all the smarts.

Garden is gone. Shed is buried and upper branches leaning on side of house / roofline. 

Back porch took the brunt quite gracefully. Power wires intermingled into the branches.

[Arlen Chou]

@Shane Pearlman wow, sorry to hear about the tree, but I am glad nobody got hurt. I live on the otherwise of the hill and a neighbor had a giant oak tree come down on their house. PG&E cleared enough of the tree to get power going, but the rest was up to my neighbor to clean up. I don't think eucalyptus has any value for firewood. I had been told that the oils in the tree are very flammable and potentially pop/explode when burned. I don't know this for a fact, but was told by another neighbor when he had one go down a few years ago. I would call in a crew and get it cleaned up to see the damage more clearly. Also, you don't want the liability of somebody getting hurt from the downed tree. 

Good luck!