Because of monster hurricane "Milton": Resident ties down house with lashing straps

Tampa (Florida) - Monster storm "Milton" is currently raging in the US state of Florida and has already caused terrible destruction and claimed several lives. While many residents fled the danger zone as part of the evacuation measures, others stayed at home and tried to protect their belongings from the hurricane. Some in their own unique way ...

Hurricane Milton hit the east coast of the USA on Thursday night. And if you hadn't already fled, you'd better have a good plan for getting your own life and possessions through the storm unscathed.

Resident Mohammed Nijem from Tampa, however, did not rely on boarded-up windows and sandbags like many others, but developed his very own method of surviving the hurricane. And it quickly went viral on the internet.

Nijem lashed his entire house to the ground with yellow straps anchored in the front garden and on the driveway. He even ran the straps over the roof of his flat house.

According to his daughter, the concrete foundations of the anchors should reach almost three meters deep into the ground. Each strap would therefore be able to withstand a weight of up to 2450 kilograms. "We're testing it," the resident explained with a grin in a TV interview with 9News.

The unconventional storm protection split the net: While some found the idea ingenious, others feared that the method with the tension belts could backfire if the anchors were ripped out of the ground during the hurricane and crashed into the house.

It remains to be seen after the storm whether the US-American's idea was actually a good one.