Hooper's Island

HURRICANE ISABEL LEFT A MIXED LEGACY on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Dorchester County residents like Harriett and Bud Hankins were able to rebuild and elevate their house after the 2003 flood that inundated their whole first floor. But even with financial assistance from the state of Maryland and the National Flood Insurance Program, raising and reconstructing their 17th century-era residence proved costly and time consuming for them. Further south in the low-lying areas of Hooper's Island, many houses were abandoned. Some residents who owned their properties outright did not have federal flood insurance and assistance from the state would not prove sufficient. Others have only just begun rebuilding now, some seven years after the storm.

Credits: The Hankins House by Bud and Harriett Hankins and Hooper's Island by Erica Goldman.