If help is needed, she goes

While many people flee disaster areas, Zonia Quero-Ziada heads right into them.

As a Red Cross volunteer, she spent more than seven weeks in the Gulf Coast region in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area.

When the waters started to rise on Snohomish County rivers two weeks ago, Quero-Ziada packed her bags again and came here.

“I cannot see people in distress or suffering, that’s my thing,” the 57-year-old Kennewick woman said.

Working out of a Red Cross truck serving hot meals last week, her enthusiasm and good cheer rose like the steam rising from the spaghetti that volunteers were dishing out.

“I do it from the humanitarian point of view,” she said. “If there’s something I can do about it, I’ll do it.”

In 11 days, she helped run an emergency shelter in Everett, distributed cleaning supplies in Granite Falls and fed hot meals to people in flood-damaged areas along the Snohomish River.

At the Three Rivers Mobile Home Park south of Monroe, she also helped many people get relief services they didn’t know about.

About half the residents in 60 trailers are Hispanic. Because of language and cultural barriers, many weren’t aware of available help.

That didn’t stop the Venezuelan-born Quero-Ziada. A court interpreter by profession, she speaks four languages – Spanish, Arabic, Italian and English. During her relief work in Snohomish County, she said she’s used them all.

Speaking Spanish set many people at ease, she said.

“There’s a lot of things they didn’t understand, like how to ask for services,” she said.

People at Three Rivers were sleeping on bare wood floors, using propane heaters to warm their homes and stringing electrical wires from home to home, she said.

Thanks in part to her efforts, the Red Cross and other agencies helped assess the area and made sure people were safe.

“We need to go to them,” Quero-Ziada said.

Waiting in a dinner line Friday, Erika Morales and her 4-year-old daughter, Angel, said they were grateful for the Red Cross’ assistance.

“It’s helpful and a relief from everything that’s happened down here,” Morales said.

Floodwaters ruined carpets, mattresses, food and more.

Red Cross provides emergency aid, then turns over long-term relief efforts to other organizations such as the Salvation Army.

More help is still needed, Salvation Army spokesman Dana Libby said.

Residents need used appliances, food and Christmas toys for children, he said.

The easiest way to support relief efforts is to drop spare change or more into a Salvation Army kettle, he said.

Red Cross volunteer Quero- Ziada returned over the weekend to her eastern Washington home.

While she was here, Quero- Ziada paid a friend $35 a day to cover her job as a court interpreter.

She doesn’t mind.