Actually, the trees and limbs that crush houses around here during hurricanes are mostly water oaks. They're notorious for falling over (roots and all) or for having humongous limbs splitting off and falling straight down onto a roof. The trunks and limbs most likely to go interloping are from mature, hollow and half rotten 40" and larger (sometimes a lot larger) trees that are already way too close to houses to begin with. Live oak and bald cypress trees in my area are the trees of choice in that they withstand hurricanes much better and are beautiful.

If your going to salvage a house with a tree in it, it's sometimes best to use an industrial back hoe or even in some cases, a track hoe (something like a Cat 320). And it's best to not touch anything until you have an enforceable agreement with the insurance underwriter (which can sadly take months after you get their attention).

I have a number of chainsaws and rotate them to the end that when I'm in the field on crew projects, we start every day with four or five saws that actually run (i.e. start right up) and have been sharpened.

As to preparing for the occasional hurricane, I test and then set several mid-range Stihls on my kitchen floor relative to helping out later if someone is struggling.

Trust me, after a major storm passes through (Rita, Andrew, Audrey, Ike, Camille, Gustav, Betsy and Katrina come to mind) you'll be grateful for every chain saw and any other kind of saw, ax, hatchet or sharp object you can get your hands on.