I know some trees not to plant to avoid ice storm damage You have to prune a young tree every year for a while to make sure you don't have main branches at steep angles. Bradford pear, silver maple and sycamore are very bad about snapped branches. Here is a link. Scroll to the bottom. On the resistant list are some that are not good to have in your yard. Sweet gum has those seed balls, walnut has walnuts and messy leaf stalks, catalpa has messy flowers. I don't know about the others. It is interesting that one linden is on the bad list and two others are on the resistant list. Ginkgo is a very interesting tree. Science teachers may visit you if you plant that. I hope others may have suggestions.

Here is a link that might be useful: list from the NE

My favorite tree is the Pin Oak.

I have two young Oak trees, Pin and either Red or White. They both survived our ice storm without damage. It might have been because they were so young. The Pin Oak is about 6-8 feet and the other maybe 20 feet. I planted another Swamp Oak on that same side of the yard.

Don't plant Elm or Silver Maple.

The redbud suffered some but was not 'topped' by the ice. The largest dogwood did well too.

Kadasuki - What kind of trees have you lost so far?
We cut down a silver maple in our back yard after our big ice storm here two years ago. It might have lived but it looked pretty bad. We cut down an Autumn Blaze(I think) maple in our front yard that had extensive damage but kept another, same kind of maple, that wasn't quite as bad. We had two London Plane trees that had only a few broken limbs. We cut down one while we had people here to help us because it was planted in a bad spot and kept the other. We kept a tulip tree that still looks pretty awful and probably should've been cut down. My parents have one about the same age that had heavy damage but has recovered nicely. Their hard maples looked horrid but they kept them. They're not recovering well at all. Still have no tops and a really weird shape.

We have a pin oak in our front yard that did pretty well. It had the very top broken off but it looked good compared to some of our other trees. They don't tolerate limey soil very well if you have that. The worst thing about them is the way the limbs continually grow down. It makes them hard to mow under. You would need to make sure it's not too close to any buildings because it's hard to keep the limbs trimmed up away from the roof.

We had a red mulberry that had nothing left but part of the trunk and we had to have it taken out.

It surprised me how badly some of the oak trees did around here. Some that were very old that lost huge limbs.

I think you're smart to drive around to see what looks the worst and also try to note which trees regain their shape after being damaged.

Oops - When I said "My parents have one about the same age that had heavy damage but has recovered nicely" I was talking about a London Plane Tree, not a tulip tree.

Here's a survey I found that was taken in Illinois after a major ice storm. At the bottom, it lists pin oak as "Susceptible". Mine did ok but age may have something to do with it. Mine are younger, between 15 - 20 years old. I was just looking at a friends sweet gum this week and noticed how many branches had been snapped off hers so I'm not sure I would agree with that being in the "resistant" columm.
I don't have one but Swamp Oak is a pretty tree. I've read some good reviews on Kentucky Coffeetree too.
I don't see birch on the list anywhere. I saw some river birches that were heavily damaged after the ice storm here but our Japanese White Clump birch made it through ok. It bends all the way to the ground every time we have ice but so far, it hasn't lost any limbs that I can recall.

Here is a link that might be useful: ICE STORM DAMAGE TO URBAN TREES

Helenh, that was a very interesting article on ice damage and trees, thanks for that helpful info. I have been considering a Linden and am glad the silver one is in the good list! Christie, we have lost a Japanese maple, a King of Norway maple, and a tree of heaven. My mom lost in last winters warm up the freeze a full grown red oak. Froze to death.
None of our trees were old, this is an 8 year old house we built, but they were costly about an average of $150 each to purchase because of size. The Arizona cypress was totally bent over kissing its own feet, but has nearly stood upright since the ice melted off it.
The trees in the ravine in back of the house have sustained a good bit of breakage but none fell, toppings, and major limb loss on some.
My plan it to replace with trees less likely to be damaged in the next storm or require costly arbor care. At the price of replacement and time to grow, it's just not productive to continue to throw away good money and time.
KK

Sorry you've had such bad luck with your trees, especially the Japanese Maple. I love those. Ours was leaning badly over our sidewalk after the ice storm here and I was sure we would have to take it out but it raised up quite a bit after everything thawed. You still have to duck a little when you walk down the sidewalk but I like my tree, so people will just have to duck.

I was going to warn you that I'd heard some Lindens are very susceptible to Japanese Beetles and get defoliated but apparently Silver Lindens aren't the ones they like and it sounds like a very pretty tree. You may have solved a mystery for me. We were at a park that had a tree that smelled like honeysuckle from quite a distance and I couldn't figure out what it was. Now I think it may have been some kind of linden! I want one! lol

Here is a link that might be useful: Japanese Beetle preferences among linden cultivars

Well, I've an update on my Arizona cypress, it had some breakage of limbs, and on the part that bent over, it shed some of its bark. I'll have to wait and see if it fully recovers this year.