Lots of Bradford pears lost major limbs, splitting right in the middle as expected. A lot of them completely split apart, losing all major branches and leaving only a 4 or 5 foot stump. My neighbor down the street has the largest Bradford I've seen, but it escaped unharmed.

Red maples showed a lot of damage as well.

I saw one blue spruce, maybe 12 or 15 feet tall, with a B&B sized root ball completely flipped out of the ground.

Lehigh University campus suffered a lot of tree damage, and is still without power, as are many residents in the area.

I knocked the snow of my trees as best as I could a couple times during the storm, and didn't lose any limbs, although a couple sizeable limbs from my neighbors weeping willow are now in my yard!

Alex

Here's is something that might help you or someone else that comes here looking for help with their storm damaged trees. I stumbled across is several years ago, and then found it again after our ice storm. Guild lines on restoration pruning that was developed in Florida to deal with hurricane damage. Still applies to other storm damage as well though. Hopefully it will help.

Arktrees

The loss of the Bradfords is a mixed bag. If even one major branch remains, many homeowners leave the tree standing. I can't understand it, they look just horrible. I should post some pictures, it's almost comical.

Alex

Arktrees

Glad to hear you and your property made out pretty well. If your neighbors are like mine, they will let the BP suckers make new trees (which is acutally kinda cool how fast the new ones grow) only to fail again in the next 10 years.

Hmmm... maybe Ark and I have the same neighbors lol

John

There is a plant hormone called auxin (plant types here know it well) that heals tree wounds. Unfortunately it is only found within a foot or less after a fork. If a branch is cut nowhere near a fork it is likely to die right back to the previous fork.

The lesson is simple: don't topiary prune - God didn't make trees round! Each branch should either be collar cut (cut back to just after it's join to the previous branch) or cut to a stump of less than 9 inches.

Sorry, but that's simply pure rubbish and is not even close to a valid reason for the way trees should be trimmed!
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Trees don't "heal". They grow over (cover) their wounds. When terminal/heading cuts are made (as in when a tree is topped), the tree grows to cover over its wounds by growing new branches at or near the cut. At least two problems occur at heading cuts. First, the time it takes for new branches to develop into the size it takes to develop enough growth to cover the relatively large wounds is often longer than it takes for the exposed wood to rot. And second, the branches that do form at these heading cuts are often poorly attached and fail as they grow (rewounding the tree). So the problems are timing (growth not fast enough to prevent rot) and structural quality (poorly attached branches).