MachineryLink

Tornado season came early this year.

A strong tornado outbreak March 13-16, 2025, was the largest on record for any March. The National Weather Service counted 116 tornadoes in 13 states from Missouri down across the South and Southeast, up as far north and east as Pennsylvania.

Forty-three people died.

The most dangerous months are in front of us. Seventy percent of the average 1,000 tornados that drop down onto the U.S. annually occur in April, May and June. This week saw a tornado outbreak in the Mid-South, with dozens of tornadoes reported on April 2 and through the night.

Tornado season also is chainsaw season. The familiar ripping sound of saws firing up after a storm is the sound of families and neighbors beginning to put their lives back together.

Turning chains rip tree wood at 5,000 feet per minute, or 83 feet per second, at full throttle. More than 600 cutting teeth pass by a single point in one second.

Used correctly and safely, a sharp chainsaw makes efficient work of storm-damaged trees. Raked across unprotected legs, arms and hands, neck or head, the damage is sickeningly catastrophic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said hospital emergency rooms tally 36,000 visits annually due to chainsaw injuries. A chain sawed gash is closed by 110 stitches on average. The bill is steep. Medical costs are $350 million.

I have volunteered since about 2012 for Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief as a chain sawyer. When we cut, we are required to wear helmets with visors, ear protection, cut-resistant gloves and chaps, long pants, plus over-the-ankle boots. Every cutter has a partner who watches for falling hazards and hazards on the ground.

It is gratifying work. Safety is first. And, yet ..

After a Christmas 2015 tornado in southwest Birmingham, I was part of a team clearing trees damaged by that F2 storm. It had been on the ground for a mile. Late in the day, I was working through a big tree in a too-small backyard surrounded by chain link fence. Some of our chainsaw team members stood nearby waiting for me to cut branches so they could drag them away.

It was toward the end of a long day; I was in a hurry, had not drank enough water, and I was tired.

Among all the safety rules we learn, one is emphasized. Before you take a step with a running chainsaw, engage the brake. Brakes nearly instantly stop the saw's chain by applying a steel brake band around the clutch drum.

The brake is engaged when the top hand guard is pushed forward. If you stumble over a branch, become tangled in a fence, or step in a hidden hole, you are not doing it with a turning chain.

However, I stepped across a branch with the saw idling. Brake not engaged, the chain was turning. As I brought my leg up to step over a branch, the saw went down and cut into my chaps. The chaps did what they were supposed to do. Loose layers of Kevlar fibers snagged and stopped the chain.

I was not injured. But without the chaps I would have put a 6-inch cut right into my thigh at or near my femoral artery. An open femoral artery drains the body of blood within minutes.

Men account for 95% of all injuries. Most injuries from the saw are to legs, heads, necks, hands and fingers, knees and ankles. Eighty percent of all chainsaw injuries are lacerations, deep and ragged cuts made by oiled and dirty chains.

One study counted 139 chainsaw amputations and 983 head injuries between 2009 and 2013. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, estimates 250 chainsaw-related deaths in any given year.

Nearly a third of injuries and most deaths are the result of kickback.

Kickback is the rapid, 1/5 of a second, uncontrolled upward motion of the saw aimed at the operator's face and neck. Hitting an obstruction with the top quarter or with the nose of a running saw are causes of kickbacks. There are low kickback chains for purchase, but no chain eliminates all risk of kickback.

Sprung branches are highly hazardous.

Storm-damaged trees are bundles of conflicting pressures that, when wrongly relieved by an ill-placed chainsaw cut, strike out with the lethality of a gunshot -- at times even impaling the chainsaw operator.

And electrocution.

Maybe not a chainsaw injury directly, downed trees often entangle power lines, and the lines may not always be de-energized.

To wrap this up, a few thoughts.

-- Chainsaw accidents happen. You are not fast enough to get out of the way.

-- Brake, always. When you move with a running chainsaw, always engage the break.

-- Take a minute. Everything inside of you wants to get the mess cleaned up. But take frequent rests, eat and drink plenty of water.

-- Look up. Branches dangling up in the trees are called "widow makers" for good reason. They drop to the ground without warning. Widow makers kill.

-- Slow release. To remove pressure from bent trees or branches, begin by relieving some of the tension by making a series of shallow cuts about one-half inch apart on the underside of the tree or branch. During each cut, as soon as you detect movement, remove the saw and begin the next cut. Make four to six cuts. The release cut is made from the top, about one-half inch past the end of the series of cuts on the underside and on the piece that is going to fall to the ground. Be sure you are clear of the piece that will be released.

-- Control kickback. Hold the saw firmly and avoid the "kickback danger zone." The zone refers to the tip or top quarter of the saw. As it strikes wood, the running saw may snap up into the face and neck area of the sawyer.

-- Hidden power lines. If a power line has been torn from a house or barn, where is it? Live wires kill.

-- Stay grounded. Standing on a wet roof with a running chainsaw, cutting branches that may spring into your face is just poor practice. Better to lift trees from a house by a capable skid steer loader or a tractor with forks or grapples. Falls with running chainsaws kill.

-- Ladders are always, always a bad idea. A cut branch swings down and knocks you from the ladder. Now, you are falling backward toward uncertain ground with a running chainsaw. You will not be able to throw that running saw free as you fall.

-- Root balls are dangerous. If the sawyer cuts through a trunk too close to the ball, the remaining trunk section and root ball can suddenly sit upright.

-- Four 'nevers.' Never cut above your shoulder. Never cut with one hand. Never cut without two routes of escape, both at a 45-degree back angle to the work. Never cut on a tree if someone else is also cutting on the same tree.

And wear your helmet, gloves, long pants, boots and chaps.

Chaps look cool.

Dan Miller can be reached at dan.miller@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @DMillerPF

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