26-03-2025
Falling Trees: An Underreported, Deadly Danger During Severe Weather
Brothers Joshua Leviskia, 11, and Josiah Leviskia, 13, were asleep in their beds near Brevard, North Carolina, as storms rumbled through early in the morning of March 16.
What happened next is a family's worst nightmare.
A tree, 3-feet in diameter, was uprooted and crashed into the home. First responders who rushed to the scene were told two children - Joshua and Josiah - were trapped inside.
The boys didn't survive.
'This family has lost everything – their home, a vehicle, and, most painfully, their children,' a fundraising page set up for the family says. 'No parent should ever have to endure such unimaginable grief.'
Death by falling trees is a scenario that plays out year-round in weather ranging from thunderstorms to winter storms to hurricanes.
But experts say the numbers are vastly underreported.
The National Weather Service doesn't keep statistics on deaths caused by trees.
The agency does track fatalities related to wind, which is a common reason why trees fall. Wind killed 71 people and injured more than 210 in the U.S. in 2023, the latest year for which numbers are available.
The 10-year annual average of wind-related deaths is 57, according to the NWS.
(MORE: 15 Severe Weather Safety Tips That Could Save Your Life)
Of those killed by wind in 2023, seven were in mobile homes and nine in permanent homes. Fourteen of the victims were in vehicles. Four were children under the age of 10. Four others were people in their 80s.
"In 2024, there were over 16,000 reports of thunderstorm high winds or thunderstorm wind damage in the U.S., according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center," senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said. "In general, winds over 60 mph, which are common in severe thunderstorms, tropical storms, hurricanes and nor'easters, are capable of downing trees."
In some cases, the same storm can cause deaths from falling trees hundreds of miles apart.
"Long-lived lines of severe thunderstorms known as derechos can produce damaging wind gusts over 250 miles long, downing thousands of trees," Erdman added. "This is not only a danger for homeowners, but also for campers who may be enjoying a vacation in a heavily wooded area."
Trees can also fall during other kinds of weather, like flooding or ice storms. And in some cases fatalities might be counted as hurricane or tornado deaths versus wind deaths.
Rain, whether during a thunderstorm or otherwise, can also contribute.
"If the ground is saturated from previous heavy rain, as can often be the case in the South, it doesn't take as strong a wind gust to blow a tree over," Erdman said. "That's because wet soil doesn't hold the tree's roots in the ground as solidly as dry soil does. Instead, the roots can eventually slosh through the soupy wet soil, increasing the danger of the tree eventually toppling over."
(MORE: 10 Tornado Myths Busted)
Sixty one of the 65 deaths attributed to Hurricane Helene's winds were due to falling trees, according to the National Hurricane Center's final report. That was the most wind-related deaths from a mainland U.S. tropical storm or hurricane in at least 61 years, the NHC found. Falling trees in Helene also claimed more lives than all of 2024's tornadoes combined (54 killed).
The neighborhood where the Leviskia brothers lived in a single-wide mobile home was still recovering from Helene.
digital meteorologist Jonathan Belles was working from home in Atlanta on March 15, covering the same severe weather outbreak that spawned the storm that killed Joshua and Josiah.
'I heard a thud,' Belles recounted later. 'I did not feel the apartment shake, but I got up and walked around to see exactly what fell. I went out to the balcony and didn't see much. On a whim, I went into the bedrooms intending to look out the windows. Instead, in my bedroom, I found a 6-8 inch diameter tree branch in my ceiling.'
The worst of the weather hadn't even hit yet, illustrating that it doesn't have to be a big storm for trees and limbs to come down.
'It was gusty, but not overly so," Belles said. "The stronger winds and rain came several hours later. In fact, I had enough time to continue working on our severe weather forecast articles, then rush to the store to buy tarps and set up a storage container for the incoming deluge before the big weather arrived.'
Erdman says there are several things people can do to help avoid tragedies from falling trees, regardless of where you live or what time of year it is.
"Take shelter for a severe thunderstorm warning just as you would a tornado warning, in a basement, or if not available, an interior room on the lowest floor of your home," he said.
(MORE: The Different Types Of Tornado Warnings You Should Know About)
If in a vehicle or outside, seek shelter in a substantial, sturdy building as soon as possible. Always have multiple ways to receive severe weather alerts. And have an arborist inspect the trees around your home at least once a year.
"If you notice a tree leaning, particularly toward your home, have it removed immediately," Erdman said. "Finding and removing an unhealthy or leaning tree that could fall in a storm is a much better option than the danger and damage from a fall onto your home, much less the deductible from your homeowner's policy."
And it could save your life.
Harvey Hillman Sr. was walking to his truck in Riverdale, Georgia, to head to work on a stormy morning in 2021. Hillman never made it to his vehicle - he was hit and killed by a falling tree in his driveway, WSB-TV reported.
Hillman's stepdaughter, Mavis Freeman, shared this with the station: "I'll tell anybody if you have trees over your house, cut them."
senior writer Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.
