BRONX, N.Y. - The waters surrounding City Island usually are serene, but that can change quickly, especially when nor'easters churn up the eastern seaboard and the waters of Long Island Sound rise.

Residents say flooding is a part of life there.

"The north end area. That’s where they get the flooding. I used to live over there. It’s bad," said David Ball, a City Island resident.

In 2012, Superstorm Sandy battered the island with water and wind. 

"My wife left and went to hide out to Queens and I stayed. And I heard the noise all night," recalled Pete Quinones, a City Island resident. "We lost a little marina. We had a marina outside of our house with boats and canoes. It sunk."

Local activists are frustrated they have seen no long-term plan to deal with rising sea levels and the risk of flooding that many scientists associate with climate change. They group City Island Rising has launched a social media campaign, urging residents to post photos and videos of flooding to grab the attention of Albany and City Hall. 

"Here we are in City Island which everybody knows is a frontline community, an area that when we do have hurricanes is going to be hard hit. And we’ve still not taken as a city, as a state, as a community, the resiliency steps we need to," said John Doyle of City Island Rising.

City Island was one of several East Bronx communities included in the city’s resilient neighborhoods initiative to protect vulnerable areas from flooding. But there has been no work performed there under the program.

In the spring of 2019, the state passed the climate leadership community protection act, which provides much needed support to communities hit first and worst by the climate crisis. Much of City Island is in the city’s highest risk flood zone.

"I see that billions of dollars are going into the south side of Manhattan. The people down there definitely deserve that, but there’s more to the city of New York than just the shores of Manhattan. There are five boroughs, not one," Doyle said.

Doyle says that he is encouraged the city's Office of Emergency Management recently surveyed low lying areas of City Island.  

In a statement, the Mayor's Office of Resiliency said it is "continually identifying new and creative opportunities to make New York City more resilient to the impacts of climate change and is committed to working closely with communities to address present and future threats."