Approximately 200,000 people are part of the Gullah-Geechee Nation, a group descended from slaves who now live in the barrier islands across the coast of Carolina, Georgia and Florida, according to CityLab. With unique traditions and a dialect with roots in West Africa, the nation was officially recognized in 2002.

As you probably know, the Carolina coast was badly hit by Hurricane Florence. In past hurricanes, few Gullah-Geechee people evacuated, and even as news agencies began to call Florence the "storm of a generation," Gullah-Geechee were hesitant to leave.

“We are people of faith and that is the reason that people do not just leave,” Queen Quet Marquetta L. Goodwine, the elected Chieftess of the Gullah-Geechee Nation told CityLab. “Our souls are tied from the land.”

This may sound poetic, but in the case of the Gullah-Geechee people, the land is literally tied to them by blood and by the souls of their ancestors.

Following the Civil War, many newly freed slaves passed property on to their children through a legal mechanism known as "heir's property." Under this system, property is passed down not through a will, but by dividing land between blood relatives of the original owner of the property. Each of those relatives owns a share that isn't always defined on paper.

It is estimated that at least 41 percent of black-owned property in the U.S.' southeast is owned under heir's property rules. Minority-owned land in other places, such as Texas and Philly, is also often owned as heir's property.

In the best of times, this isn't a problem. People living on heir's property pay their property taxes, build on and maintain their land, and everything is fine.

But during natural disasters, it becomes a problem.

The issue first came to the public's attention during Hurricane Katrina, according to Mother Jones. Nearly 25,000 people affected by the storm lived on heir's property, and didn't have the title to their homes. When they went to FEMA for aid, they lacked the necessary documents to prove they owned their homes, and were denied help.

Without money to repair their homes, many of these people had to sell their land or simply abandon it. “It’s common to see a cascade of issues for low-income disaster victims," Laura Tuggle, the executive director of Southeast Louisiana Legal Services said. “Everyone gets impacted by flooding, but not equally.”

With water rising in the Gullah-Geechee Nation, citizens whose families have held Carolina land for more than a century could lose their homes in a similar fashion. Although FEMA has relaxed its application criteria somewhat following Katrina, some fear its requirements are still too much of a hurdle for the Gullah-Geechee.

“Usually FEMA has a window in which you can apply for relief funds,” Jennie L. Stephens, who runs an heir's property legal aid organization, said. “You can’t resolve heir’s property in a matter of weeks. So what does that do for a family who can’t access those funds?”

What that does according to John Pollock, who runs another nonprofit that works to help people holding heir's property, is put vulnerable, cash-strapped people in the hands of land speculators. Gullah-Geechee land is beautiful, is along the coast and is exactly the sort of land hotel and resort chains desperately want.

Beginning in the 1970s, Pollock says these chains have used the intricacies of current heir's property law to buy up Gullah-Geechee land, sometimes without the express permission of the people living on the land. This could get worse following the storm.

“All the owners, including the ones who’ve been living there for decades, get forced off,” said Pollock. “It’s a dramatic and draconian situation.”

Sheldon Scott, a member of the Gullah-Geechee Nation, evacuated his mother and sister to Washington D.C. Monday. While he's glad his family is safe, he worries what will happen to the heir's property his mother lives on.

“It’s the only home my mom has ever known,” Scott said. “Most people evacuate with some assurance that, even if the house is gone, the home would still be accessible." But Scott worries in the months to come, that home could be gone forever.

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