Sandy Uprooted Trees by the Thousands in New York, New Jersey

By JIM FITZGERALD | November 19, 2012

  • November 28, 2012 at 8:12 pm
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    This article covered a number of different situations, and opinions which I appreciate are all valid. It seems to me that an insurance trade press article ought to also mention the direct
    insurance applications that result from ownership of large trees:

    1> Most tree drop branches, therefore routine maintenance is a
    good idea that most cities can’t afford, and most homeowners
    make excuses why not to do.

    2> When a tree does damage, sometimes it’s deadly, and sometimes
    an owner is negligent.

    3> When a big tree falls, it’s often expensive to remove. Often
    insurance only pays a small portion of that cost.

    4> Insurers generally don’t suggest preventative maintenance on
    trees other than cutting branches away from a roof. It may be
    cost justified to study a pro active defensive maintenance
    position rather than ignoring reality until a loss is filed?

    5> Under grounding power and communication cables may be cost
    prohibitive, but the rewards of WPA style construction jobs,
    and long term beautification may justify it?

    6> The idea of using different tree stocks to conform with the
    height requirements of various cable locations is just too
    much common sense now isn’t it? We really don’t need a
    professional arborist to tell us that a sixty foot tree is not
    the best choice for a fifteen foot tall space. Ironically, I
    see idiotic tree plantings all over. It’s as if landscapers
    are intent on insuring future damages so they have a chance to
    come back year later and fix it again!

    Here on the west coast we hear very little about the people suffering back east from Sandy. Looking at ABC’s NightLine, it seems as though the lights are back on in NY, so everything’s back
    to normal, but I know that can’t be true. Too many people lost their homes, most or all they owned, and after the floods, come the winter storms and snow. I hope that every spare military
    resource we have has already been deployed to those areas, but we
    hear nothing about it. All we hear is requests to donate to the
    American Red Cross, and after reading about their high executive
    pay, and expense ratios, many of us are reluctant to do that.

    I’m sure that all insurers are doing what they can to help.



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