Homeowners Still Feeling Storm’s Fury Insurance Policies Don’t Cover Removal Of Trees Falling On Ground

The storm passed, the skies cleared, but John Snell’s fractured trees stayed on the ground.

A severe windstorm July 9 roared through Snell’s neighborhood in Rathdrum, flinging down trees around - and on - the new homes.

Now, Snell and some of his neighbors have discovered that their insurance companies aren’t paying for removal of many trees - including some that hang over homes like piney Swords of Damocles.

“I bought a treed lot, and now I have no trees,” said Snell. “I think I have a loss here.”

“No one’s happy about what’s been paid or done,” said one of Snell’s neighbors, Gary Hill.

The storm caused more than $1 million in damage, of which $864,000 was uninsured, said Bill Schwartz, Kootenai County director of disaster services.

The county will request a site-by-site evaluation by the state, which would make some property owners eligible for low-interest loans to repair the damage.

Schwartz said Kootenai County still is collecting damage reports. Forms are available at post offices and from the Kootenai County sheriff’s office. Deadline for filing the reports is this Friday.

Most of the uninsured damage, he said, was trees.

“Rathdrum took the biggest hit, by far,” Schwartz said. “Trees were blown down. They didn’t hit anything, but they cost hundreds of dollars to haul away.”

In Rathdrum, some trees landed on Snell’s garage, and on Hill’s car. Those weren’t a problem. Insurance companies paid for the damage.

But trees also crashed into Snell’s carefully tended flower beds, and crushed Hill’s four-year-old hedge. Insurance companies won’t pay for that damage, nor for removal of the trees.

“We all thought our insurance companies were going to pay for that,” Snell said. “In all reality, we should have dropped the trees on the house.”

“It’s kind of sad,” said Janine Williams, who spent $1,200 to remove six toppled trees from her yard. Her homeowner’s insurance company is offering $200 in reimbursement.

The three neighbors each have different insurers, but Coeur d’Alene insurance adjuster Hal Campbell said all insurance policies are basically the same when it comes to wind damage.

Campbell, an independent adjuster, is hired each year by dozens of companies to go out and document the damage.

“The wind has to affect an insured item,” he said. “If a tree falls on a building or near a building, so that repairs couldn’t be done, then it would be covered.”

But a tree toppling in your yard, he said, is typically not covered.

As for the trees hanging over nearby homes, Campbell said threats to the property - i.e., home and outbuildings - are the responsibility of the property owners. It’s impractical, he said, for insurance companies to come out and inspect every possible threat.

Typically, he said, yard trees are covered in the event of fires, lightning, explosions or riots, all of which are likely to damage the house, too.

Snell and his neighbors have pored over similar clauses in their policies, and scoff. Rathdrum occasionally has a small political squabble, but riots there are rare, indeed.

“This is not our fault,” said Snell. “What were we supposed to do? Hold the trees up?”

Hill’s taken videos and pictures of the damage to his house. His company told him they’d sent an adjuster out. None ever came.

“It’s a trick,” he said, throwing his policy down on a table. “You’ve got to be an attorney to understand that. They (insurers) are interested in collecting those premiums, and that’s it.”

Snell, convinced his policy covers all trees on the property, has taken his case to the state insurance department.

“One thing about it,” he said, “it won’t happen again. The damage has been done. The trees are gone.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: DEADLINE Deadline for filing damage reports with Kootenai County is this Friday.