It’s been two weeks since the September 2 storm tore through Kitchener and Waterloo, and by now most of the obvious mess is dealt with. The branches that came down on driveways got dragged to the curb. The patio umbrellas ended up wherever they ended up.
The part that’s left is the part you can’t see from the kitchen window. It’s still up in the trees.
This wasn’t a normal summer blow. The Northern Tornadoes Project confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down in Wellesley Township, just west of Waterloo, with wind gusts reported up to 110 km/h across the region during the storm. In Kitchener, the city’s own account of that evening says its contact centre fielded more than 60 calls and emails about downed trees and debris by 9:30 p.m. alone. CBC News, CTV News Kitchener and CP24 all covered the damage across the region, and the line worth reading twice came in the City of Kitchener’s own notice after the storm, which warned that damage “may remain in upright trees at risk of falling.”
That’s the city’s own forestry people saying the storm isn’t finished with us yet. A tree that’s still standing isn’t automatically a tree that’s fine.
One rule before anything else: stay on the ground
Everything in this post is a from-the-ground check. Walk your yard, look up, take your time. Binoculars help if you have them.
What you don’t do is lean a ladder against a storm-damaged tree, and you don’t run a saw over your own head. Falls and chainsaws are how storm cleanup puts homeowners in the hospital weeks after the weather has moved on. If a limb needs someone up in the tree to reach it, that someone shouldn’t be you.
And if anything is touching or near hydro lines, that’s a call to your utility. Not to us, not to you, not to anyone with a saw and good intentions.
The walk-around: six things to look for
Take ten minutes and circle the property. Here’s what two weeks of weather hasn’t fixed on its own:
- Cracked limbs that are still attached. Look along the big branches for splits, pale exposed wood, or bark peeled back. The storm started the break. Gravity is going to finish it.
- Hangers. Broken branches that never made it to the ground because they’re caught in the canopy. Arborists call these widow-makers for a reason. They come down without warning, usually in the next wind.
- A new lean. If a tree is standing at an angle you don’t remember, trust your memory. Check the base for lifted or cracked soil on the side away from the lean. That can mean the roots let go, and a tree like that is the most urgent thing on this list.
- Split forks. Where a trunk divides into two main stems, look for a fresh crack down the middle of the V. Those joints were the weak point in the wind and they’re still the weak point now.
- Branches resting on things. A limb sitting on the fence, the shed roof, or the neighbour’s side of the line hasn’t finished falling. It’s paused.
- Deadwood the storm exposed. Grey, bare, brittle branches with no leaves while the rest of the tree is still green. The storm often snaps these partway and leaves them lodged.
Nothing on that list gets better by itself. October wind is coming, and behind it the first wet snow, which loads every branch with weight it didn’t carry in September. A cracked limb that survived the storm rarely survives the season.
The brush pile has a deadline too
Plenty of KW yards still have a pile from September 2 sitting behind the shed or along the fence. It feels dealt with because it’s off the lawn.
It isn’t dealt with. Wind scatters a loose pile back across the yard. Rain mats it into the grass, and the patch underneath dies. Once real snow lands on it, the whole thing freezes into a single block that isn’t going anywhere until April, and in April there’s a dead rectangle under it.
Two weeks of good weather is the cheapest this pile will ever be to deal with.
What the Region’s yard waste takes, and what it doesn’t
The Region of Waterloo’s yard waste collection handles the small stuff: branches cut down to size and bundled to their rules, bags of twigs and leaves, garden debris. Check the Region’s website for the current bundling and size limits on your collection route, because they do enforce them.
Where curbside stops is exactly where storm damage starts. Collection doesn’t take limbs you can’t lift, trunk wood, root balls, or anything still attached to the tree. It also doesn’t take the fence panels, shed parts, and smashed patio furniture the storm left behind, because those aren’t yard waste at all.
That’s the line between a Saturday with a bow saw and a job for a crew.
What it costs when the crew handles it
Every price here is pre-HST, with 13% HST added as its own line. Full details are on our pricing page.
Cracked limbs, hangers, and damaged branches fall under our tree trimming. Small jobs run $95 to $150 and medium jobs $150 to $300, priced per job. Anything larger than that gets quoted on site, and the assessment is free. If a job needs a climber or it’s a full removal, we’ll say so straight instead of taking on work that belongs with a licensed arborist. Hedge and tree work is a quoted service on our site rather than a checkout item, so tell us what you have and we’ll give you a real number before anyone shows up.
The scattered mess is a yard clean up: starts at $450, plus HST, and includes trimming, weed and debris removal, and hauling everything away on our truck. Larger properties are quoted after we’ve seen the job, with the $450 deposit applied toward that final number. No bundles at the curb, no waiting on collection day.
The big and the broken is junk removal, priced the same way as a clean-up: starts at $450, plus HST, with a full day of work at $1,500 plus dump fees, both plus HST. Dump and disposal fees are billed at cost from the scale ticket with a $15 handling fee per trip. That’s the fence that came down, the crushed gazebo, the shed door that’s now in three pieces.
One honest note while you’re already walking the property: winter is the next storm on the calendar. Our Winter Plan covers November 1 to April 15 with unlimited clearing at the 5 cm trigger, one payment for the whole winter.
Questions people are asking since the storm
The storm was two weeks ago. Isn’t the danger over?
No, and that’s the whole point of the City of Kitchener’s notice. Damage that stayed up in the tree is still up in the tree. It comes down on a schedule set by wind and snow, not by the calendar.
Is a leaning tree an emergency?
Treat it like one if it leans over the house, the driveway, or anywhere people walk. Keep everyone clear of the fall line and get it looked at now, not next month. Near hydro lines, call your utility first, always.
Will you take the brush the Region’s collection won’t?
Yes. Hauling is built into the yard clean up, and mixed debris like fence panels goes on the junk removal truck. Nothing sits at your curb.
Can you take the whole damaged tree down?
We trim small and medium jobs at the prices above, and quote larger work on site for free. If what your tree actually needs is a licensed arborist, we’ll tell you that instead of pretending otherwise.
Get it down before the weather does
Walk the yard this week while it’s still shirt-sleeve weather out there. If you spot a cracked limb, a hanger, or a lean you don’t like, call or text 226-336-2077 or send your address through our contact page. Assessments are free, and we’ll tell you which job it is before we book anything.
We work Kitchener and Waterloo with Mannheim at the edge, and we don’t cover Cambridge. Boundaries are on the service area page, and more answers live on the FAQ. Neighbourhood details are on the Kitchener and Waterloo clean up pages.
Pink is the new green.