A strong thunderstorm Wednesday evening was enough to cause some major damage to a home in Altamonte Springs.

The storm knocked a large part of a tree onto Bob Sterling’s home, punching holes in his roof. Sterling doesn’t know if it was lightning, wind or combination of both that took down the huge section of the tree in his front yard.

With Tropical Storm Erika looming, Sterling isn’t taking any chances.

He’s having crews take down the rest of the old tree.

“If we had a severe storm, there may be other parts of the tree that could come down,” said Sterling.

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Emergency management officials are urging homeowners to take a close look around their property for any loose tree limbs that could become hazardous during a tropical storm.  But if you need help with the tree trimming, it could be too late now to get a crew to your home.

“Right now my backlog is 10 days to two weeks, and we’re going to take care of our customers first.  So, you’ve got to plan for these things in advance,” said Dan Babrosky. 

Babrosky is the District Manager for Davey, a nationwide tree trimming company.

We caught up with another tree trimming company doing regular tree maintenance at an Oviedo home on Thursday.

“This tree that has not been trimmed, the wind’s not moving through it quite as easily.  It’s more susceptible to falling over in a wind event,” said Tom Stone with Sun State Trees.

Bob Sterling hopes to eventually get all of the old trees around his home taken down.

“We’re taking all the trees down that could possibly fall on the house now,” said Sterling.

The only problem, crews aren’t coming back to Sterling’s home until early September.  Erika could have an impact early next week.

Tree experts say it’s best to have your trees taken care of before there’s even mention of a tropical system in the forecast.