Superstorm Sandy changed Long Island forever 12 years ago.

Many have been able to rebuild. For some, like Michele Libertella of Lindenhurst, Sandy left a whole set of new problems for them to face. 

Libertella says 12 years ago, she and her family trudged through waist-high water to get back to their Lindenhurst home after Superstorm Sandy.

"We didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if I was coming back to find a house,” she said. "It was just surreal. The streets were covered with mud, muck. There was stuff everywhere."

Years later, they've been able to rebuild and raise their home, but now deal with constant flooding that's only gotten worse after Sandy.

"I have to actually check the tide schedule for a week and compare it to my work schedule so I know what time to leave, which is a headache,” she said.

Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin says the town saw billions of dollars in damages, but also opportunities to better prepare for the next storm.

"How can I better be prepared for it? And that's part of our mission in the town,” he said. "How to minimize that impact with our development of our housing, or building our shorelines, or building ways to prevent the water from coming in. One thing we've done in the town, is actually, we've raised our bulkheading."

Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy says the village spent millions to reline sewer lines, raise transformers, and fortify village buildings since sand brought almost 4 feet of water into nearly 4,000 homes in the village. He says he’s looking for major help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to better protect the village.

"We need to put surge barrier gates, one at Jones Inlet, one at Reynold's Channel. They'd close these gates two hours before a named storm. Open up two hours after a named storm. We could protect all of Nassau County,” he said. "I cannot fathom this happening again to Freeport."

Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino says fortifying Tobay Beach protects mainland communities, but it's a temporary and expensive fix.

“We need permanent solutions to fortify our beaches so that we don't keep going through this very expensive process.

The federal government also has a study in the works looking at the resiliency of the South Shore that many towns and villages are interested in.