An area native who swam through Houston flood waters with her 3-year-old to be rescued by helicopter expects to be in Andalusia with her family later this week.

Dawn Cole was interviewed twice last week on CNN.

“A CNN journalist spotted me and my baby sleeping in a cot in the packed (shelter) and interviewed me,” she said late last week. I looked homeless. Well, I am, sort of.”

Cole, who also swam to safety after Hurricane Allison flooded Houston in 2001, said she didn’t expect floods to be so serious in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

“A lot of my neighbors didn’t realize you had to swim to be rescued,” she said.

She had called 911, and was standing on top of a pick-up. She estimated there was three or four feet of water in her home. She had packed essentials for her son, she said.

She lost everything, she said.

“I’m just glad we are safe and my toddler seems great, even after being in the storm flood waters. He’s his usual, high energy, active self.

“It’s sad. However, I’m not down or discouraged because I know we are blessed,” she said. “We got out in time and my baby is here with me asleep safe, so to me that’s worth more than anything in the universe. We lost everything we had, those are just thing that can be replaced, and truly I don’t even care over the material things at the end of the day, I know what it’s all about. I know what matters.”

Cole moved to a hotel late last week, and will remain there until she flies home.

“My home is not liveable,” she said.

“We’re picking her up in Pensacola on Thursday,” her father, Eddie Cole, said Monday night.

She said she needs toddler clothes sized 3T, women’s clothes in size 10 or medium.

For additional information, call Wendy and Scott Jones at 334.222.5233 or her father, Canon at 334.222.7490.

Donations can be dropped at his home, 16015 County Road 32, Andalusia.