As Tropical Storm Harvey continues to deluge homes and sweep vehicles off roads in Texas and Louisiana, at least 38 deaths have been reported. Officials in affected counties are starting to learn the victims’ identities and piece together the circumstances around their deaths.

Here are details on some of those who died. This article will be updated.

Image

Andrew Pasek

Andrew Pasek, 25, was always bringing home stray animals. There was Mali the puppy, his mother recalled, a tabby he called Blu and a Tibetan spaniel named Coco.

So it surprised no one that on Tuesday, Andrew set out to retrieve his sister Alyssa’s cat, D’Artagnan, who had been left behind as the floodwaters rose in Houston.

Andrew drove to the home with his childhood friend, Sean Stuart, and they began wading through several feet of water toward his sister’s two-story house.

Suddenly, the two felt the jolt of an electrical current in the water, said Andrew’s mother, JoDell Pasek.

“Years ago, Andrew had had an accident and broken his ankle severely, and he had plates and pins in his ankle,” she said. “All of that electricity started going to everything in his ankle and he started jumping around.”

Andrew fell into a mailbox on a metal post. “He told Sean, ‘Get away from me, I’m dying,’” Ms. Pasek said, through tears. “He knew immediately that if Sean touched him, he would be electrocuted too.”

Officials in Harris County attributed his death to accidental electrocution, the ninth confirmed storm death in the county.

Sean’s mother called Ms. Pasek to tell her what had happened. “I get that phone call, my son is no longer alive,” she said. “I just started screaming. We’ve been friends since the kids were in kindergarten, so I know it was the hardest thing she had to do.”

Gathered at home in Houston, Andrew’s family was left wondering if they could have stopped him from trying to rescue D’Artagnan.

“We’ve all decided that no matter what we would have said, he would have gone anyway,” Ms. Pasek said. “That was just his nature.”

Donald and Rochelle Rogers

Thelma Hooker has barely begun to mourn her brother, Donald Rogers, 65, and his wife, Rochelle, 58, who drowned in floodwaters on Wednesday while driving their Toyota pickup truck to check on a relative.

“It just don’t feel real,” she said.

Ms. Hooker is mostly worried about their 91-year-old mother, Lola, who lives at home and is in poor health. The family has yet to tell her the news. Not today, they are thinking, not till they figure out how to say it.

“I don’t want my mom to get sicker,” Ms. Hooker said. “We just can’t tell her right now.”

Until then, they are screening phone calls and keeping the television turned off. Reports of the couple’s death have been on the news — he was a minister, a well-liked man, she said. Rochelle Rogers worked at a flower shop and was devoted to the couple’s church.

On Wednesday, Mr. Rogers called Ms. Hooker to see how she was doing, telling her that he and Rochelle would be heading over to an uncle’s house to make sure he was safe. Somehow they drove into the raging floodwaters, the authorities said. They called 911 from the pickup, pleading for help.

Ms. Hooker knows they cannot delay telling her mother much longer. “I know my mom, and she has an instinct,” she said. “She’s getting worried. It’ll have to be tomorrow.”

The Saldivar family