Falling trees and limbs cause hundreds of millions of dollars of damage each year, as well as personal injuries and deaths. Windstorms and ice storms are leading causes of such damage and injuries. Wildfire risks exist in nearly every state, and in those areas buildings have also been destroyed by fire leaping from nearby trees and shrubs. Tree-related damage is usually apparent. Limbs crashing through a roof or onto automobiles or power lines are hard to miss. Sometimes the damage is so severe that entire homes are destroyed. This is especially likely to happen when large trees are torn out of the ground and topple onto a house, crashing through the structure or knocking it off its foundation. Remarkably, extensive tree damage can also occur underground, out of sight.
