Jokes on you both! This is a legitimate form of protection from high wind events 🙂

In high winds the risk to most structures is upward prying forces on the lips of the roofs, as roofs (except ones in Florida built after Andrew codes went in effect) are nailed/ framed for downward and side to side loads, not uplift.

You can retrofit old roof trusses with hurricane straps and clips, and honestly most homes in Florida have done so because it’s a huge savings on your homeowners insurance.

Your wind mitigation report you should have had done when you purchased will tell you what you have. There are still some stragglers out there because some people are stupidly cheap.

If you don’t have clips or straps securing the trusses, then your roof is at risk to being pried off the walls because there’s only a couple toe nails preventing it.

Put 75mph uplifting wind on it for hours and well, something may truly give. Then once the roof is gone, that’s what holds your walls up from side forces (like say strong winds) and now your walls may also come down.

But my walls are block! You say. Well, block walls are very vulnerable to tipping / pushing forces. They are not poured solid (that’s expensive), so usually it’s 1/2 a block every few feet and then a solid beam poured across the top of the wall. If you know what a lever is, then a very heavy beam at the top of a tall wall with no side support, once moved / pushed a few inches, is going to want to fall over.

The straps may Look dumb but they are a method of securing the roof *down*.

You do need to make sure the anchors are deep enough and at a proper angle… too shallow and out they come, especially if the ground becomes soaked. So they are not ideal compared to clips/straps but better than 0.