Storm Chassing

[kajudude]

Im New Here so I thaught I would ask a Question that has ive been pondering for a while "how many of you chase storms"in that you pack up your men and equipment and drive over 4-5 hundrd miles,and please list your experiance with these trips.Ive done the local storms,never went to katrina or anything just wondering what your take on it was and did you profit from your trip?recently drove to lawton oklahoma and looked around seen one comp from fla. one from minn.seemed they were standin around a lot.

 

[kajudude]

Is this the right place for this question,or is it that im new ,or is it that you dont want to tell on yourself,or is it that this is an old subject?hey guys ive been in the tree industry for about 20 years now have worked in fla.tx ark. just wanting to know your take on this ive never chased storms because the buisness around here has always been pretty good but it seems like here lately that walmart has had a sale on chainsaws and that every crack head thinks he is a tree man.Loballing has been rampet here,just looking at options to keep the wolves off the door.

 

[Treetom]

11:30 am - 2:49 pm and no response yet?! I always thaught it takes longer to get a response on here when everybody's out chasng storms. But that's just my experiance.

 

[tree MDS]

Welcome Kdude!

I dont know anything about chasing storms... but thats a sweet bucket and chipper you have there. Whats that 254 running for an engine??

 

[kajudude]

john deer deisel

 

[tree MDS]

john deer deisel

Nice. I have the JD 125 turbo in my 250 with quad rollers.

Nice height with that truck too!

 

[kajudude]

yea its a nice truck just got it for christmas,replaced a 60ft highranger that we worked about 8 years, the elivator is sweet realy makes adif sometimes,plus the pony motor is very user friendly.and my wife wanted one of those new camarows(sorry babe)

 

[tree md]

Just went through Lawton yesterday on my way home from Jacksboro, TX. Looked like some moderate damage but nothing on the scale of what we had in OK a couple of years ago. I saw the out of town companies too. Didn't look like a high paying storm though.

Storm chasing is a gamble. Lot's of trees on houses means insurance money but you have to be there quick to get the work tied down. Also depends on the size of the storm. If you send a crew down ahead of the storm and nothing materializes or it turns out to be a little one then you are out the money for food, gas and lodging you are paying for your men and or yourself. Wait til the storm hits and get there too late then all you are doing is cleanup. It's a gamble.

Smart money finds a local to contract with. There's good money in large storms but it sucks camping out (sometimes for weeks) without power and having to worry about every derelict in the country stealing your ####. The large outfits are the ones who end up making the biggest money by getting contracts to haul the debris.

 

[treeslayer]

Im New Here so I thaught I would ask a Question that has ive been pondering for a while "how many of you chase storms"in that you pack up your men and equipment and drive over 4-5 hundrd miles,and please list your experiance with these trips.Ive done the local storms,never went to katrina or anything just wondering what your take on it was and did you profit from your trip?recently drove to lawton oklahoma and looked around seen one comp from fla. one from minn.seemed they were standin around a lot.

list my experience? for who?

I could write a book, but why? Lot of money to be made in storms, but seriously dude, why tell you, because you asked?
contribute, post pics, show us it's worth our while to tell YOU how to make money.

Actually, most travelers DON"T make good money, get in quick, and back out and you might do okay, if you land at the right place and time.

I go and stay for months, Heck, I just flew back to VA and I'm headed north.

 

[mckeetree]

Im New Here so I thaught I would ask a Question that has ive been pondering for a while "how many of you chase storms"in that you pack up your men and equipment and drive over 4-5 hundrd miles,and please list your experiance with these trips.Ive done the local storms,never went to katrina or anything just wondering what your take on it was and did you profit from your trip?recently drove to lawton oklahoma and looked around seen one comp from fla. one from minn.seemed they were standin around a lot.

It just depends on where you want to be and what you want to do. For me, I have a really nice, loyal (and I want to keep them that way) customer base that is located within a 50 mile radius of our shop and I am not interested in anything outside of that. We worked Andrew in 1992 and got a little education on those kind of deals. Lots of guys with lots of lies about what they make on storm excursions. In this business your customer base IS your business. Without them you are just another tree gypsy, glorified or otherwise.

 

[priest]

I can't believe there are still so many companies milling around Lawton. We left there over two weeks ago.
The last job we did was for a former employee's grandfather. He waited a week for us and had 35 other tree-company business cards on his coffee table when we did the job.
That's serious competition in a small, not-too-wealthy town.
It looked to me like some of the guys that travelled far must have lost money.

 

[HurricaneHunter]

3 Things

1) Timing is Everything.
2) Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
3) Expect the Unexpected.

 

[priest]

If you expect something, I believe it can no longer be defined as unexpected . . . are they not, by definition, mutually exclusive? Perhaps "Be prepared for unlikely events that may reduce productivity" is a more realistic strategy.
Bottom line, storms are unpredictable. I lived through a virtual hell working Katrina in Slidell, LA. We got bad gas. The generator quit. No A/C. Lows of 85 degrees camped in a parking lot. Mosquitoes, lots. Humidity was insane. Five men in a tiny, hot camper. Yeah we made some money, but I'll take some good consistent local jobs in a GOOD economy with a comfortable bed any day over some of the storm work we've suffered through.

 

[treeslayer]

In this business your customer base IS your business. Without them you are just another tree gypsy, glorified or otherwise.

:agree2:
leaving a good stable work environment to go to a storm is really a risk, sure you might make more $$ overall, but having to work extra hours in a strange place makes it rough.

The flip side is getting to help people, and doing some outrageous work.

 

[HurricaneHunter]

Yes, Expect the Unexpected

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLXo9IFVboY

 

[treeslayer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLXo9IFVboY

absolutely nothing to do with the topic.
storms are pretty predictable to me, not much unexpected in a war zone.

 

[HurricaneHunter]

Yeah, nothing to do with storm chasing, I'm just in one of those moods this morning. Funky weather, can't work and can't take the airplane for a spin. Anyway, maybe 'expect the unexpected' is too much of a military term.

expect the unexpected Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
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[edit] English[edit] Verb expect the unexpected

1.To not be surprised by an unusual event. Anything could happen, and probably will.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Expect the unexpected is the official military term, in the ranks they say errr....stuff happens.

Sanborn's rules for storm work

1. the damage area must cover more then one county
2. the storm must be in a major metro area
3. you need to get in the area in no later then 3-4 days after the event
4. the demand curve falls off after 2 weeks the money falls off after 3-4 weeks
5. fliers an door knocking only piss people off, you need to make people happy and network them. Word of mouth and performance in a neighborhood are the best ways to make it work.
6. there are different storms, some are labor intensive, some are equipment intensive. It is all capitol intensive.
7. after Katrina every one and their little sister has gotten the idea that there is big money in storm work. competition can get ugly.

 

[tree md]

Sanborn, you forgot number 8...

How long you wife lets you stay out and play...

 

[kajudude]

some pretty different oppinions so far thanks for the input.Iwas just kinda wondering what the general consensouse was about storm chaising.Ive always been kinda leary of it simply becuase of the bad conditions in the area that the storm hits in.It always seemed to me that you would spend more than you make with labor and such.plus the major inconveniance of not being in your own bed at night,stuff like that.and as far as the competiton Im sure it is pretty cuthroat.