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A little spit of land stirring up some big controversy on Kiawah Island. This after Congressman Henry Brown introduced a bill that would qualify future homeowners on Captain Sam's Spit for federal flood insurance.
Captain Sam's Spit will soon be the site of 50 multimillion dollar houses and some are concerned what will happen when the next storm strikes.
"If anything is ever built there, a hurricane comes and tears it up, it will take it and throw it right into the marsh," long-time Kiawah Island resident Sidi Limehouse said.
Limehouse is against the proposed bill.
Some on the other side say this is nothing new.
"Capatain Sam's isn't more vulnerable to a hurricane than the rest of Kiawah," Kiawah's Mayor William Wert responded.
Vulnerability led the federal government to zone Captain Sam's ineligible for federal flood insurance back in 1982, but a bill in the works could change all of that.
"If it passes," Nancy Vinson of the Coastal Conservation League explained, "the tax payers are going to end up spending millions and millions of dollars to restore and replace these homes and to subsidize the flood insurance on them. They would restore or replace the roads, the water, the sewer lines after the hurricanes come."
Town of Kiawah officials disagree and say the total bill would not be left for taxpayers to foot.
"The first $250,000 would come from the federal government just like Katrina and places in Florida, but anything above would be dependent on what the homeowner has for his own personal insurance," Mayor Wert added.
That explanation is not good enough for some neighbors who say it is all about business.
"That is 100 million dollars for them," Limehouse said about the developers. "That's a lot of money. You think of those 50 houses down there and what they can get for them. That is 100 million dollars."
That money pales in comparison to what they could have to pay and this community is not ready to bear that burden.
Mayor Wert says it was federal flood insurance that helped out Hurricane Katrina storm victims. He says damage of that magnitude is everyones responsibility and the future homeowners deserve that assistance.
This fight is on its way to Washington. A hearing will be held on September 10th. Town council voted against sending Mayor Wert to testify at that hearing. They say the council has gone far enough to support this bill.
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