Sunday marks 11 years since Hurricane Sandy hit the city, killing 43 people and leaving nearly $20 billion in damages.

Some residents in Far Rockaway, Queens say they are no safer from the next big storm.

Linda Bowman and others whose lives were turned upside down by Sandy gathered at her house on Beach 13th Street to demand help during a vigil and rally Friday. She says flooding destroyed her basement and displaced her and some of her children.

“When Hurricane Sandy came it tore my house up," Bowman said. "Tore up all downstairs and everything.”

Bowman has raised more than 100 children — mostly foster children, some adopted — in her home of 30 years, where she also runs a day care business. She says the home is too special to leave, with all the memories. 

She says she's had pumps and drains installed, but her home still floods

“Since Sandy, I’ve had the house fixed about four times since then," she said. "Because of flooding."

City officials have said things have gotten better, citing wetland restoration and the construction, alteration or raising of thousands of homes citywide. There's also the ongoing federal Coastal Storm Risk Reduction Project, which includes the building of 14 stone groins, fixing five others, reinforcing the dune system and sand renourishment on the Rockaway Penninsula.

“Studies show communities like ours, Black and brown communities, which have long been deprived of our fair share of the city’s infrastructure investments are more at risk as the effects of climate change get worse," Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers said at the rally.

Activists say not enough attention has been paid to communities of color. Bowman says she couldn't raise her home, because that would remove her three bedrooms and bathroom in the basement, needed for her foster children, and she can''t afford to move.

“Nobody can say they helped me do this or that, because they did nothing here," she said.