Hurricane ties

This picture shows one of the things that Ryan has done to improve the quality and longevity of the house.  He designed the roof to be a hip roof all the way around with the exception of the front stoop.  with a hip roof, it is more difficult for the wind to whip around and lift up under the edge of the roof and damage it.

The metal plates you see attaching the top plate of the wall to the roof trusses are called hurricane ties.  So, the bottom board of the wall is secured to the concrete foundation with huge bolts drilled into the concrete.  The wall studs are secured with several framing nails and the top plate to the roof trusses with hurricane ties.  What does this mean?  It would take a hurricane....or more to lift the roof off of our house.