After it rains, water usually flows off Long Island streets into storm drains, making its way back out into the surrounding bodies of water. Not so much in Mastic Beach.

Once known as a summer bungalow community nestled within a confluence of bays, ponds, streams and wetlands, low-laying Mastic experiences the opposite. Here, stormwater and saltwater often gush up through the drains, pouring onto the roads of this South Shore community and trapping residents in their homes.

It is just one of the ongoing realities of life in this marshland — and the Town of Brookhaven, under past and present supervisors Ed Romaine and Dan Panico, deserves praise for turning it back into just that. "We have been retreating for 10 years," Panico told the editorial board. "I deal in reality." 

After more than a decade, the town has gained control of enough land to recreate a 147-acre salt marsh along Mastic Beach’s shore. Since 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, the town has acquired 300 properties by various means, putting more than $2 million toward these land purchases. The approach — to slowly acquire properties one-by-one and work with other entities like Suffolk County and New York State’s NY Rising program to prevent future development in an area simply not suited for it — was strategic and smart.

The strategy has also included closing roads that are chronically underwater during high tide instead of pursuing temporary drainage solutions, the mitigation equivalent of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

The salt marsh, a $20 million project currently without a completion deadline, will essentially function as a "natural sponge," absorbing stormwater and acting as much-needed protection for land farther from the shore. The restored marsh also is expected to help recreate a habitat for diamondback terrapins and saltmarsh sparrows.

As storms continue to worsen and the region faces grim flooding projections, the Island's other low-lying coastal areas have a model to follow in Mastic Beach. Known as "managed retreat," it's a process where homeowners willingly divest themselves of their property. It won't be easy to fund in communities with higher land value, at least for now. But eventually, rising seas will come for many more places, necessitating responses like managed retreat.

A nextLI analysis last year of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority's 100-year flood plain data with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's predictions found a Mastic Beach home has a 26% chance of experiencing at least one severe flood during the life of a 30-year mortgage. By 2100, that goes up to a 46% chance.

When stormwater gurgles up through road drains, it’s common to see tiny fish in the leftover Mastic Beach puddles, a reminder of the natural habitat that was paved over. Kudos to Mastic Beach's leadership for returning it to nature.

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