Whitehouse Mayor James Wansley speaks at a briefing Tuesday afternoon.

Officials have released the name of a Whitehouse man who died during the overnight storms.

W.M. Solomon, 71, was killed in the storms after officials said strong winds pushed a large tree into his home. 

Whitehouse Fire Chief Madison Johnson released Solomon’s name during a media briefing on Tuesday afternoon.

“Our prayers are with the citizen that we lost …” Whitehouse Mayor James Wansley said. “We lost a neighbor, we lost a friend, we lost a citizen of Whitehouse and we’re in mourning over that loss.”

The official cause of death has not been determined at this time.

Johnson said the storm caused a lot of property damage, but there were not any other reported injuries or casualties as a result of the storm. 

As of 2 p.m., power has been restored to thousands of homes but 1,700 residents remain without power. 

Early Tuesday morning, at least 21 roads were reported as impassable but Johnson said as of this afternoon most all roads are passable and every road should be cleared by the end of the day.

Johnson asked residents to be mindful of power crews who are working to restore power and tend to downed or hanging power lines.

He advised residents to still use extreme caution and assume any wire on the ground as a live wire and to “stay away, period.” 

Johnson said a National Weather Service Shreveport team is currently on scene assessing damages to determine the exact nature of the weather event.

“The weather event itself was very confined, contained to about a mile or mile and a half radius in the southeastern portion of the city,” Johnson said.

A formal disaster declaration has not been declared, Johnson said, as the event was not of a magnitude that would fit the criteria for the declaration.

He said about a dozen homes were significantly impacted by the storm and several others saw minor damage.

Johnson also noted the city of Whitehouse has resumed its normal operations and is confident by Wednesday all operations will be back to normal for the municipality. 

There will be extra limb and brush pickups this week to help clear debris from homes. 

Johnson and Wansley both expressed gratitude to all agencies involved in the “team effort” of responding to the storm’s aftermath.

Wansley said he is proud of how the city responded and gave credit to the city and county’s disaster plans that can be put into action in a moment’s notice when weather events such as this occur. 

Wansley also said he is thankful Whitehouse is such a tight-knit community with supportive residents. He said when he was driving around with police officers earlier in the morning, he witnessed several residents stop and ask how they could help their neighbors. 

“You can’t ask for a better community when your back is against the wall than the city of Whitehouse,” Wansley said. “We look for ways to help each other.”