Home insurance in Alabama is a question about your policy, your deductible, and a claim after hail, wind, or water. The paper that matters is the declarations page, not a memory of what someone said when the policy started. Read the dwelling limit and any wind or hail deductible written apart from the ordinary one. Bring that page so the talk stays on your house.
Hail on a ridge and rain that rose in a crawl are not the same kind of loss. A shingle bruise may belong on a wind and hail claim. Water from a ditch or a creek may sit outside the homeowners policy and inside a separate flood policy. Ask which cause the policy names and which cause it sets aside. A hill lot and a coastal lot do not share one flood story.
Along the Gulf, wind can lift edges and drive rain under felt while water at the floor is a different event. Inland, a hail core over Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, or the Tennessee Valley can bruise a roof that still looks even from the street. A pine through a carport is not the same claim shape as granules in a gutter. Say which one you have, and where the water ended.
Loss of use, belongings, and the dwelling are different lines on the page. A house you cannot sleep in is not the same question as a soaked sofa. Ask what the policy does if the kitchen is open to weather and what it does not do if the water came up from the ground. Market value is not the rebuild idea printed on the page. Use those printed words.
Before you call, walk the outside. Note lifted tabs, a soft soffit, ceiling stains, and whether the yard held standing water. Photograph what you can see without climbing. Keep the declarations page at hand. When you call, give the city, the kind of house, and the part that failed. Ask how a claim is opened and what the deductible will be for that kind of damage. Call the number on this page.