Chuck Jones - West TN
It is obvious that you guys have some experience with damaged trees... enough experience to know you never have enough experience. There is always an opportunity for surprise, and there is nothing sissy about being overly cautious.

I have been a member of a volunteer disaster response team for about ten years. We mostly do tree and debris removal, and we've had too much practice over these years. We usually have 2-3 skid-steers and a couple smaller tractors with us. Several of us have chainsaws longer than your leg and years of experience. We take things out that are quite impressive. BUT WE ARE ALL A BUNCH OF CHICKENS! It is amazing the amount of calm, cool, caution that is displayed by our crew. Nobody jumps into anything that is close to risky without examining the situation, talking it over with each other, having a plan, figuring on the worst possibility, etc.

We have cleaned up after hurricane Ivan, Katrina, Rita, Ike, and a couple the names of which I can't remember, as well as numerous tornadoes, ice storms, and floods.

We are thankful that we have never caused major additional damage to anyone's property, nor physical harm to anyone... well with one exception. A young MD who only works with us occasionally got a little too eager one day and ran in to a spot where another team member was dropping a small pine snag. But it only took 15 stitches to fix his head and we found one of his friends to do it for free.