For Many in Md., Struggle Continues Long Past Isabel
Dean and Julie Shiflett are living in a 26-foot rented RV next to their house, left uninhabitable after Hurricane Isabel. They're the only full-time residents left at Old Breton Beach, a Potomac River community 75 miles downstream from Washington where almost all the homes are posted as unsafe.
Up the road in the Washington suburbs, life's normal rhythms have resumed. The power's on, the kids have long been back in school, and chain saws have yielded to leaf blowers.
But a full month after Isabel, life in the coastal communities of Southern Maryland -- places such as Old Breton Beach, McKay's Beach and St. George's Island in St. Mary's County -- remains anything but normal.
The "Road Closed" sign still greets visitors to Old Breton Beach, along with a posted notice showing a hand holding a gun and the inscription: "This Neighborhood Does More Than Watch!" For weeks, Dean Shiflett, fearful of looters, patrolled the area armed with a 9 mm pistol.
The rest of the story...
Dean and Julie Shiflett are living in a 26-foot rented RV next to their house, left uninhabitable after Hurricane Isabel. They're the only full-time residents left at Old Breton Beach, a Potomac River community 75 miles downstream from Washington where almost all the homes are posted as unsafe.
Up the road in the Washington suburbs, life's normal rhythms have resumed. The power's on, the kids have long been back in school, and chain saws have yielded to leaf blowers.
But a full month after Isabel, life in the coastal communities of Southern Maryland -- places such as Old Breton Beach, McKay's Beach and St. George's Island in St. Mary's County -- remains anything but normal.
The "Road Closed" sign still greets visitors to Old Breton Beach, along with a posted notice showing a hand holding a gun and the inscription: "This Neighborhood Does More Than Watch!" For weeks, Dean Shiflett, fearful of looters, patrolled the area armed with a 9 mm pistol.
The rest of the story...