Long Island is surrounded to the north, south and east by water and if you correctly include Brooklyn and Queens, then add the west as well.

What could go wrong?

Long Island residents didn’t need to see the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ian to answer that question.

The memory of Hurricane Sandy 10 years ago is still fresh in the minds of those who lived through it. Billions in damage, hundreds of lives lost, businesses and homes destroyed, no electricity for more than two weeks for some.

The question that now needs to be asked is what we have done since then to prepare for the next storm at a time when climate change has increased the frequency and destructive power of nature across the globe.

Consider that Sandy’s strongest wind gusts on Long Island reached 95 mph while Hurricane Ian’s top gusts reached as high as 155 m.p.h. Could Long Island see winds that strong?

Sandy’s top wave surge did rival that of Hurricane Ida, reaching 14 feet in New York Harbor. The water then topped the seawall in Lower Manhattan and flooded parts of New York’s subway system.

The wave surge on Long Island was recorded at less than 6 feet. But that was still enough to cause devastating destruction from which the island is still recovering.

Emergency managers in Lee County, Fla., have rightly come under scrutiny for delaying orders to residents to evacuate until a day after several neighboring counties had ordered their most vulnerable residents to flee.

The county, which includes the hard-hit seaside community of Fort Myers Beach, as well as the towns of Fort Myers, Sanibel and Cape Coral, now has the highest death toll of anywhere in the state.

But the truth is that many on Long Island and beyond appear to be like the Lee County officials in being a day late – and then some – in responding to climate change.

Opponents of action first denied that man-made climate change was real and then claimed the cost of combating the threat far outweighed the benefits.

Tell that to residents of southwest Florida – and Long Island.

Ironically, then-Congressman Ron DeSantis voted against federal aid to New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy struck in 2012.

Now Gov. DeSantis has apparently reconsidered his opposition to assistance from Washington following Hurricane Ian and is asking for federal help. Incredibly, not all of DeSantis’ Republican colleagues agree.

The federal government has made significant progress in the past two years in efforts to address climate change and prepare for the future fallout from our past sins.

Congress, in a bipartisan vote, approved $1.2 billion in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021, which includes money to modernize roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports, airports and wastewater facilities.

In a straight party-line vote this year, Democrats approved the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes $369 billion for energy security and climate change – the largest investment ever made to combat climate change.

The legislation has already sparked billions in investment for the manufacturing of solar panels and automobile charging stations.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Monday Long Island’s own plans to fortify some of its most critical and natural “firewalls” along the coast can move forward because of the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.

Schumer said the act makes $2.6 billion available for local governments and other entities to tap to conserve, restore and protect marine and coastal habitats. The New York senator said this part of the bill was written with Long Island in mind.

California recently banned gasoline-powered cars by 2035, a move expected to spur a faster nationwide shift to electric vehicles.

Gov. Kathy Hochul then began the process to implement a 2035 ban on new sales of light-duty combustion engine vehicles in New York.  She has also signed an executive order to make state operations more sustainable.

Nassau County Executive Bruce A. Blakeman announced Monday he has directed a full-scale, table-top exercise to ensure the county’s preparedness for any potential significant natural disaster.

Representatives from every major county department will be present to work through the county’s 120-hour plan should a major storm be predicted to hit the area.

This is all welcome news, but many of the changes will take years to complete. And climate change is a global issue and not every country is on board.

The changes just enacted also do not answer the question of whether enough has been done to adequately prepare for another Hurricane Sandy – or something even worse – in the near future.

State and county officials need to determine if areas flooded after Hurricane Sandy would be safe now and take steps to mitigate or prevent flooding if they aren’t safe.

Both the state and federal governments should reconsider their practice of giving money to people to rebuild in areas that have already flooded. No matter how well-intentioned, this is often just tossing good money after bad.

We would also be better served if in at least some cases people were given money to rebuild their homes and businesses somewhere else – in areas not subject to flooding.

Local zoning laws should also be reviewed to require that new homes and businesses are capable of withstanding the wind and rain seen in Hurricane Ian.

All Nassau residents are painfully aware of the need for government and utilities to respond to severe storm damage. Some homes and businesses were without power for more than two weeks following Hurricane Sandy and timely communication was missing.

Are we better prepared now?

More long term, local officials need to consider ways to reduce our reliance on the automobile – at least until electric vehicles become the norm.

Some Nassau Republicans have called the MTA’s proposed congestion pricing for Manhattan, which is aimed at reducing traffic and pollution, an attack on the suburbs.

But getting some of the 180,000 Long Island residents who commute by car to New York City each day off the roads would be helpful in reducing the greenhouse gases that have helped create our climate crisis.

It would also reduce the congested roadways that sometimes turn the suburban dream into a nightmare.

Towns and villages can also help by making zoning changes to encourage mixed-use development near train stations that would attract people who commute by train.

Mineola is currently considering changes to encourage mixed-use development in the village’s business districts.

Mayor Paul Periera said the proposal recognized that the downtown business districts of the past are gone and will never return.

We would be well served to use more of Periera’s realism to fight climate change and prepare for the next Hurricane Sandy.