Roof insurance claims
Wind and hail roof claims on the Gulf Coast
In Alabama, storm damage to a roof is mostly wind. Hurricanes, tropical systems, and summer downbursts strip and unseal shingles here far more often than hail bruises them — which is the opposite of how most roofing sites write this page, because most of them are written for the Midwest.
Wind and hail are both named perils on most homeowners policies. They get documented differently, they get scrutinized differently, and on the coast they often sit behind a different deductible than everything else your policy covers.
The main event here
Six things wind actually does to a roof
Most wind damage does not look like a hole in the roof. It looks like a roof that appears fine from the street and has lost its seal — which is why so much of it goes unreported until the next storm drives rain into the house.
Creased tabs
A shingle that got folded back by a gust and laid down again carries a horizontal crease across the tab. The seal is broken even though the shingle is still on the roof, and it is the most common wind finding on a Gulf Coast roof.
Unsealed shingles
Wind breaks the adhesive strip that bonds each course to the one below. Lift a tab by hand and it comes up with no resistance. Unsealed shingles are the ones that leave next time.
Missing pieces
Whole tabs, ridge cap, or hip cap gone — often concentrated on the elevation that faced the storm. A directional pattern is what makes wind damage read as wind damage rather than age.
Damaged edge metal and flashing
Drip edge peeled up, step flashing pulled loose, counter flashing lifted at a chimney. Edges are where wind gets under a roof and starts prying, which is why FORTIFIED construction focuses there.
Displaced or bent vents
Ridge vent lifted, turbines or box vents tilted, pipe boots torn. These are direct water paths and they are easy to miss from the ground.
Interior water marks after the storm
A stain that appeared after a specific storm ties the damage to a date. Photograph it the day you see it — that photograph is worth more later than any description.
If a storm already hit, get the damage documented before the next one lands on top of it.
The coastal wrinkle
You probably have more than one deductible
Inland, a homeowners policy usually carries one flat deductible. On the Gulf Coast, most policies carry several, and which one applies depends on what caused the loss.
There is typically an all-other-perils deductible — a flat dollar amount for fire, theft, a tree limb on a calm day. Then there is commonly a separate windstorm or hail deductible, and frequently a distinct hurricane or named-storm deductible that only triggers when the National Weather Service has named the system. The named-storm one is usually written as a percentage of your dwelling coverage rather than a flat figure, which makes it considerably larger than homeowners expect.
Whether a given storm triggers the named-storm deductible or the ordinary wind one is defined in your policy language, often down to when the trigger window opens and closes. This is worth reading before a storm season, not during one — and your agent will walk you through it in a phone call.
We don't touch your deductible
Liberty does not waive, absorb, discount, or “work around” a deductible, and we do not take assignments of benefits. Both offers circulate on the Eastern Shore after every named storm, usually from crews that will not be here next year.
What we do is inspect the roof, document what the storm did, and price the work honestly so you can see the whole number before you commit to anything.
We document, we meet the adjuster, we do the work. Coverage decisions are between you and your insurer.
What the record shows
Recorded severe weather in our two counties
These are recorded severe-weather reports from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center for 2000–2025, at county resolution. They are reports, not a complete census — rural and unwitnessed events go uncounted — but they show the shape of the risk here: damaging wind is the recurring event, and hail is real but far less frequent.
Baldwin County, AL
- Damaging-wind reports
- 210
- Severe-hail reports
- 67
- Peak recorded gust
- 120 mph
- Largest recorded hail
- 4″
recorded 2009
recorded 2021
Mobile County, AL
- Damaging-wind reports
- 267
- Severe-hail reports
- 70
- Peak recorded gust
- 90 mph
- Largest recorded hail
- 2″
recorded 2025
recorded 2010
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe-weather report database, 2000–2025, county-resolution reports. Severe hail is defined as one inch in diameter or larger; peak gust converted from the reported knots figure.
The secondary path
Hail happens here, and it gets looked at harder
Alabama is not a hail alley, and the report counts above show it — damaging wind reports run several times the severe-hail count in both counties. But hail does reach the coast, and when it does the claim goes differently.
Hail damage is harder to see and easier to argue about. It leaves bruises rather than holes, those bruises can be mistaken for blistering or manufacturing defects, and older roofs show granule loss from age that looks superficially similar. So adjusters test-square hail claims carefully, and documentation matters more, not less.
The upside is that hail leaves corroborating evidence elsewhere on the property. Soft metals dent at lower energy than shingles bruise, so gutters, downspouts, and vent hoods usually tell the story before the roof does.
What hail damage looks like
- Round, dark bruises where granules were knocked off and the mat underneath is soft to the touch
- Random impact pattern with no directional consistency — the opposite of wind
- Dents in soft metals: gutters, downspouts, vent hoods, roof-mounted flashing
- Spatter marks on oxidized metal surfaces, which help date the event
- Granules collected in gutters and at downspout outlets after a specific storm
- Split or fractured shingle mat, visible when a bruise is pressed
The first 48 hours
What to do after a storm hits your roof
Stop the water first. If a roof is open and rain is coming, a tarp or a dry-in is a reasonable emergency measure and most policies expect you to take one — photograph the damage before you cover it, and keep the receipt.
Then get it inspected while the storm date is still fresh. Damage documented within days of a named event reads as storm damage. The same damage found two years later reads as age, and that is a much harder conversation for everyone involved.
Do not sign anything a door-knocker puts in front of you in the first week. After every named storm the Eastern Shore fills up with out-of-state crews, and the paperwork they carry frequently includes an assignment of benefits or a contingency clause that binds you to them before you know what your roof even needs.
Keep reading
More on roof claims
What the policy covers, what the adjuster does, and why roof age keeps coming up.
The roof claim, start to finish
The five stages of a coastal Alabama roof claim, and who does what at each one.
Read itDoes insurance cover roof replacement?
One distinction decides most of it: sudden damage is generally covered, age and wear generally are not.
Read itRoof age and insurance
Why carriers are tightening on older roofs, and what a non-renewal letter actually means.
Read itThe adjuster visit
What happens on the roof that day, what gets documented, and why we ask to be there.
Read itWater damage from a roof leak
The interior loss and the roof can land under different parts of the policy — the sudden-vs-gradual hinge.
Read itACV vs RCV
Why the first insurance check is smaller than the estimate, and what recoverable depreciation means.
Read itCommon questions
Wind and hail claim FAQ
- Will homeowners insurance cover wind damage to a roof?
- Wind is a named peril on most standard homeowners policies, so wind damage to a roof is generally covered. The details are where coastal Alabama differs: many policies here apply a separate windstorm or named-storm deductible, and some carry windstorm exclusions or sub-limits written into an endorsement. Read your declarations page to see which deductible applies to a wind loss on your policy before you file.
- What size hail damages a roof?
- NOAA classifies hail one inch in diameter or larger as severe, and that is the threshold used in the storm-report data on this page. But size alone does not settle it — a roof's shingle type, its age, the wind driving the hail, and the angle of impact all matter. Smaller hail regularly dents soft metals like gutters and vent hoods without bruising the shingles. Only an inspection tells you what happened to your specific roof.
- What does hail damage look like on a roof?
- Round bruises where the granules were knocked away, with a soft or fractured mat underneath, scattered in a random pattern with no directional bias. The clearest evidence is usually not on the shingles at all — it is dents in gutters, downspouts, and vent hoods, because soft metals mark at lower impact energy than an asphalt shingle does.
- How long do I have to file a storm damage claim?
- Policies set their own notice requirements, and Alabama law sets outer limits on how long a claim can be brought — but the practical answer is far shorter than either. The longer you wait, the harder it is to establish that a specific storm caused the damage rather than the years since. If you think a storm hit your roof, get it documented while the connection to a date is still clear.
- My neighbor's roof was replaced after the storm. Why wasn't mine?
- Different roofs take storms differently. Age, shingle type, slope orientation, tree cover, and the exact track of a downburst all vary house to house — two homes on the same street genuinely can come out differently. Coverage also depends on each homeowner's own policy terms and deductibles, which are not the same from one carrier to the next. The only way to know what your roof took is to have it inspected.
Free inspection · no obligation
Storm went through? Get it documented.
We'll inspect the roof, photograph every slope, and give you a written report and estimate while the storm date is still fresh. Emergency tarping if the roof is open. Free inspection, no obligation.
Licensed Alabama roofing contractor #7430. We are not a public adjuster and we do not take assignments of benefits.
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