Dry Tree Damages Prairie Village Home

PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan.- The drought is making tree limbs fall off trees, more than usual this summer and it’s threatening homes. Pictures remind homeowner Tom Fields of just how large the tree limb that fell on his home near Cambridge and Somerset drives, really was.

“You couldn’t see any bit of the house except for the porch light coming through the trees,” Fields said.

Inside, it even punctured his living room ceiling. The limb from a tree on a neighbor’s front lawn came tumbling down Friday night around 9:30.

“I was sitting, playing a computer game when I heard a large snap and a whoosh,” Fields said.

Monday, his roof is covered with tarp and his lawn is covered in chopped up debris.  It even took down the gutter on the neighboring home

Fields said the tree was in pretty bad shape, and this summer drought, made it worse.

” Well, I think it hastened whatever was having a problem up there anyway, just because of the fact that when it fell, there was no rain, no wind, no storm,” Fields said.

There is an actual term for what’s happening according to certified arborist Ivan Katzer

“The summer limb drop is the term that’s being used. You can’t find an official explanation for it exactly, but the thinking is, it’s attributed to the drought-stress,” Katzer said

He said you should be looking for mushrooms on the bottom of your trees. They are signs the tree is decaying.  He also says look for falling limbs

“When you see limbs dying in the canopy, you suspect you have root loss, so as you’re losing roots, the anchoring system of the tree, then you have to be concerned,” Katzer said

He said even though you might not want to water your trees because it can be expensive, you should.  He said keep the top 10 inches of soil moist because that’s where most of the roots are. Katzer said the end result, could save you more than you’d lose

Fields does have insurance. He said the next step is to do all the insurance claims and that process starts Tuesday.