UPDATE: Powerful Storm Rips Through Royal Oak

A quick but very powerful storm ripped through Royal Oak about 5 p.m. Saturday, ripping down trees and power lines and forcing officials to shut down the Woodward Dream Cruise over safety concerns.

10:55 p.m.: It might have looked like a tornado hit Royal Oak on Saturday, but it's very unlikely, said Dick Wagenmaker of the National Weather Service. Dopler radar, which is built to see rotation, showed no rotational signature to indicate there was a tornado in Royal Oak, he said. Radar indicates straight line wind, sometimes called a downburst. Wagenmaker says turbulent clouds producing hard rain can sometimes "look funny" and are often mistaken for tornados.

10:03 p.m.: Approximately 60,000 DTE customers lost power after Saturday's severe weather, spokesman Alejandro Bodipo-Memba said, adding that Clawson and Royal Oak were among the hardest-hit areas. He said the company hopes to have most customers' power restored by Sunday morning. "We'll have crews working throughout the night," he said.

9:30 p.m.: DTE Energy reported 7,487 customers without power in Royal Oak as of 6 p.m., including 6,766 in the 48073 ZIP code and 721 in the 48067 ZIP code.

8:45 p.m.: "We're hoping to get the majority of folks back up tomorrow morning," DTE spokesman Alejandro Bodipo-Memba said. "That doesn't mean everybody, but the majority." He cautioned residents to stay at least 20 feet away from downed power lines and anything with which they come in contact and to report downed wires by calling 800-477-4747. "We want everybody to be safe," he said.

8:30-8:45 p.m.: Royal Oak and Woodward Dream Cruise officials are explaining why they shut down the Dream Cruise and are telling people to go home while at the same time some media were questioning the shutdown. 

"Cruisers get on out there! It's still a party on Woodward! #DreamCruise #backchannel," tweeted Dave LewAllen of WXYZ, Channel 7, under the handle @tvnewzguy at 7:11 p.m., just after the station began its live broadcast from the Dream Cruise.

Greg Rassel, Woodward Dream Cruise board president and director of the Royal Oak Department of Public Safety, told WXYZ: "We closed the roads because we had a number of power lines out throughout the city, so we had to divert forces to guard those power lines until DTE gets out here to do their job. ... It just made sense to disperse the crowd as much as we could until we could get control and use our forces effectively."

Chief Corrigan O'Donahue added: "We couldn't let the crowds come back. We got over 30 downed wires, a couple of them really close, right off Woodward. A lot of the exhibits and displays were damaged. So, it was a public safety matter. We couldn't let all the crowds go back up to what they were."

8 p.m.: A half-dozen police officers on motorcycles were adamant in urging cruisegoers to "go home," moving systematically through the parking lots south of Normandy in Royal Oak. People were not listening.

7:15 p.m.: DTE reports 6,456 customers without power in the 48073 ZIP code and 720 out in the 48067 area for a total of 7,176.

At least a dozen trees are down at , near 13 Mile and
Woodward. Many were up rooted or snapped at the base during the powerful storm Saturday.

About 6:30 p.m., police on motorcycles were driving up and down Woodward using megaphones to implore people to get to safety. "More storms are coming. It's going to get worse, so please go home," officers shouted to Dream Cruise stragglers walking and standing along Woodward.

DTE Energy reported 6,376 customers without power in Royal Oak as of 6 p.m., including 5,725 in the 48073 ZIP code and 651 in the 48067 ZIP code.

There were about 60 or more power lines down throughout Royal Oak and fires burning, Lt. Robert Weingartz said Saturday evening. DTE was working to shut off power to downed lines all over the city, he said. Weingartz said there were no injuries that he was aware of.

Residents reported seeing straight-line winds as the worst of the storm hit.

"It looked like a tornado," said Scott Baker, who lives in the 4100 block of Seminole Drive in northwest Royal Oak. "I saw the wind swirling and moving." He said the top of an evergreen tree in his backyard was broken off and was blown across the yard, stopping just inches from his house.

There was no official word from the National Weather Service as of Saturday evening about the nature of the winds.

The street to the west of Seminole, Fulton Place north of Normandy, was littered with downed trees and power lines, which blocked the street in places and rested on homes and garages. A transformer and/or power lines downed by falling tree branches caused a fire in Fulton Park, one block east of Greenfield.

Brian Vier of Royal Oak was enjoying a Dream Cruise party at the home of his sister and brother-in-law, Dianne and Ray Colby, on Fulton Place with about 20 people when the storm hit. He said they saw the storm coming but didn’t thing much of it as they grilled hamburgers in the backyard.

"My husband started yelling, 'Everyone get in the basement! Everyone get in the basement!' " Dianne Colby said, and then a major gust of wind blew Ray Colby off his feet.

After the storm passed, they thought the grill was smoking, but it turned out to be a burning transformer in Fulton Park across the street, where fallen tree branches pulled down power lines and caused a small fire on the ground.

Eileen Beuther, who lives on Seminole Drive, said her house did not have damage, but she said her family lost all its patio furniture. "We could just see it, it sucked everything right off our patio," she said.

An evergreen tree was uprooted and fell in the backyard of a home on Seminole Drive just north of Normandy. That was just one of many trees down in the area.

shut down Normandy west of Woodward to Seminole Drive as Dream Cruise-goers fled from Woodward.

Come back to RoyalOak.Patch.com for more updates.

If you have photos or stories to share, please email them to Beth.Valone@Patch.com.