Carol Crupi, Valley Stream Herald's 2010 Person of the Year

When 2010 began, Carol Crupi wasn’t well known in Valley Stream. A year later, however, her name has become synonymous with the plight of local residents who feel they have been unfairly treated by the federal government, specifically the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

New flood maps, created by FEMA, went into effect in September 2009, and much of Valley Stream, including Gibson and Mill Brook, was put into the high-risk flood zone. Homeowners with mortgages were mandated to buy flood insurance, and some people were hit with premiums of $2,000 a year or more.

In the months after the new maps went into effect, a movement against FEMA began to grow in Valley Stream, and Crupi quickly became its leader. Over the past seven months she has become a community activist, organizing residents in the fight against a mammoth federal agency. For that extraordinary dedication, the Herald has named Crupi its 2010 Person of the Year.

Fighting FEMA and rallying her community has become a second full-time job for Crupi, who from 9 to 5 is an executive sales administrator for United Sales Concepts, a Valley Stream packaging consultant and distributor. “It’s taken up a little bit of time,” she said of the FEMA work in something of a world-class understatement, “but I have to say I’m passionate about it because it’s so unjust.”

Crupi said she often comes home during her lunch break to make phone calls or send e-mails about the flood map situation. She has been in constant contact with her neighbors, village officials and representatives from the offices of U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and Sen. Chuck Schumer.

When Schumer came to Valley Stream in September to address the flood map situation and to call on FEMA to take another look at the new maps, Crupi was there to speak on behalf of her fellow residents. She is proud to say that Valley Stream was mentioned by name five times in the well of the Senate during the debate on a bill that would bring relief to homeowners.