Local leaders toured Gerritsen Beach Monday, three years after Superstorm Sandy battered the region.

The visit comes as Hurricane Joaquin passed New York far out over the Atlantic.

State Sens. Marty Golden and John Flanagan joined firefighters and Gerritsen residents to tour the neighborhood.

Golden says homeowners need to step up and have work done that will mitigate future flood damage.

"We don't hear any drills going on...we don't hear any pile driving going on," Golden says. "These people need to get their homes raised."

Many residents simply abandoned their homes after Sandy hit, but many who remained behind can't actually live in the area due to the damage.

Repairs have been held up by the city's post-Sandy rebuilding program, Build it Back.

Another issue has been the slow rebuild of storm-damaged infrastructure.

Golden says that he believes that enough funding is available.

"It's just a matter of expediting and finding out why it's taking long -- where the bottleneck is," Golden says.

A Build it Back representative says the program underwent an overhaul last spring and has since made significant progress. They say that nearly all of the homeowners in Gerritsen Beach received reimbursement and that most are in the design or construction phases of rebuilding.