I realize this would be difficult, but far better than metal strapping on the trusses, would be a fold down panel under your eaves. Roofs get torn off because of the eaves. A house with no eaves does not lose it's roof. It's the pressure gradient underneath caused by the wind turbulence. It's almost best described as a (bastardized) Bernoulli effect.Sort of. I would draw this out, but just try to picture this. Say your eaves are 30"s and then a gutter. You want to apply a 60 degree panel that extends from the gutter base down to the sidewall. Yeah I know, pretty impractical. There's ways it can be done that are basically as easy as temporarily putting plywood over glass, but it is still a pain. But it's a sure fire way to keep a roof on. Those straps you added, unless you really thought it out, probably won't help much. The number one thing is keeping a pressure differential from building below/above your eaves. Anyway.... next time you build in a hurricane zone, the block walls are good, just lose the eaves and you'll be golden. A tile roof makes an eave-less structure more appealing. With shingles, it'll just look stupid.
That's quite scary. Without a basement, you would have nowhere to go to escape from the wind! Good thing that your house held up. That's one selling point you can add to your house if you ever want to sell your house that it withstood a category 3 hurricane.
When done properly, the trusses/rafters won't blow off with metal straps. New construction requires the straps to go over the top of the rafters/trusses. Rather than removing all the bottom of my soffits, I screwed a 6" timberlok into the bottom of every rafter with a metal hurricane strap down to the concrete blocks with tapcons securing the strap to the blocks. This isn't by code but surely it increases the wind rating a bit. My soffits are only 14" plus 5" for the gutter. My home isn't expensive or I would do more to secure the roof.
Wind load requirements vary from 125 mph near Georgia line to 200 mph down at The Keys. Wonder if that product (6" screws etc) can handle all of the state?
Yeah when you said that you added the straps, that's what I wondering, how you did it and how tight you got them. That must have been quite the miserable job crawling around in 100 degree+ attic bumping your head as you installed those lol. Blow in insulation would really make it a pain. You built the shutters too huh? So you just leave them up? I assume they're aesthetic looking, you must be pretty good.
I was going to remove all the bottom of the soffit to strap the rafters but decided to do it the easy way. Put an "L" strap on the bottom of the soffit below each rafter and screwed the 6" timberlok up into the rafter with tapcons horizontal into the concrete blocks. With a little paint they're not that noticeable. I can remove them when I sell the home if the buyer doesn't like to see them on the outside. Easy to remove and patch/paint the holes. I care more about keeping the roof on than what it looks like. Shutters stay on the house as they're decorative so it's quick and easy to close them for a storm. Looks better with them on than without and I didn't have to buy hurricane shutters.