readOGR not reading in prj file?

Where is "shapebase" coming from?
If those are the files in the directory, your scripts should as below:
dir.path <- directory path
dFloodRisk <- readOGR(dir.path, "2014Spring_Flood_Drawn")
proj4string(dFloodRisk)

I'm reading the files in exactly as you are suggesting (floodshapedir
and shapebase are variables) as seen in the output below:

dFloodRisk <- readOGR(floodshapedir, shapebase)

OGR data source with driver: ESRI Shapefile
Source: "FloodShapes", layer: "2013Spring_Flood_Drawn"

Just not sure why the prj file is not being read in.  Thanks.

-- Vinh