A 25-year-old man died Tuesday when he was electrocuted by a live wire hidden below floodwaters in Houston while trying to rescue his sister’s pet cat, according to multiple reports.
Family members said Andrew Pasek, 25, went to a home in the Bear Creek 1 subdivision with a friend on Tuesday afternoon to get his sister's cat, KTRK reported. Pasek's sister and her fiance had no carrier for the cat, and so the animal was left behind when the area was evacuated, the Houston Chronicle reported.
"When it became clear they could be out of their home for weeks, Pasek - an animal lover with a habit of rescuing stray dogs and cats - went back with a friend around 2 p.m. Tuesday to pick up their cat," according to the Chronicle. "He drove his Jeep and tried to walk the rest of the way to his sister's house due to the floodwaters, but was electrocuted on the walk over."
Pasek's sister, identified only as Alyssa, told KPRC the situation was "a terrible mistake" and an "accident that shouldn't have happened."
“They were only in about knee-deep water and walking through the neighbors' yards because the water was more shallow,” she told the news station. “He got too close to an electrical wire that was still running hot.”
Pasek's mother, Jodell Pasek, told KPRC that he warned his friend away from the area when he realized what was happening.
“He told (his friend) Sean, ‘I’m dying. Go away. Don’t help me,’” she told the news station. “He didn’t want him to get electrified, too.”
Jodell Pasek told KTRK that she lost her eldest son, identified by KPRC as E.J. Donnelley, years earlier in a car accident.
"I'll be honest with you, I don't know what I'm going to do," she told KTRK. "I don't have them at home to take care of anymore, but I have to go on with my life."
More than 30 people have died in the days since Harvey churned into Texas as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm, which the National Weather Service had categorized as a tropical depression as of Thursday morning, continued to dump rain across parts of the southeast.
Credit: David J. Phillip
Credit: David J. Phillip
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