Storm Takes Down Power Lines, Tree Limbs

Royal Oak didn't get the brunt of Monday's strong and quick thunderstorms, but what it got was enough to down some power lines and tree branches, leaving more than 200 DTE Energy customers without power on a hot and muggy Monday evening.

Two power lines were down between the houses on Arlington and Seminole Drive in the Royal Oak Beverly Hills neighborhood west of Woodward and south of 14 Mile Road after Monday's thunderstorm.

Residents reported the power flicking on and off repeatedly as the the storm began to blow in, then finally going out completely about 4:30 p.m. Nearly 60 customers were affected in that area, according to the DTE power outage map.

The responded to the scene and put caution tape around the area where the power lines hung over a sidewalk on Grandview.

Fire officials stayed on site to protect the area from pedestrians and instructed nearby residents to stay out of their backyards until DTE Energy repair crews could arrive.

"It could be five minutes, or it could be five days," neighbor Ann Maudlin said a firefighter told her about the power line repair. DTE crews had yet to arrive to assess the situation. Maudlin said the official told her there were four outages reported in Royal Oak as of late Monday afternoon.

The DTE outage map showed 90 customers affected in the 48073 ZIP code, 131 in the 48067 ZIP code and none in 48068 as of 7 p.m. Monday.

Down the street, power was also out at the home of Beth and Jim Kokotovich, but they were more concerned about the broken glass in their backyard in-ground swimming pool.

A patio table blew over in the wind, and the tempered glass top shattered and fell into the pool.

Jim Kokotovich came home early from work to help his wife clean up the mess, donning his swim trunks and pair of goggles to sweep up the glass from the bottom of the pool. 

"Probably months from now, we'll be finding little slivers," Beth Kokotovich said.

Across Seminole Drive from the Kokotovich home, a large tree branch was cracked and slowly breaking off from the rest of the tree over a driveway.

The storms blew in as the day grew increasingly hot and muggy, with temperatures reaching into the mid-90s and the heat index soaring even higher.

"The heat wave this week is expected to be the longest duration of hot and humid conditions since July of 1995," the National Weather Service reported.

A heat advisory remains in effect until 8 a.m. Wednesday with temperatures continuing to climb into the mid- to upper 90s and nighttime temperatures falling only to the 70s, providing little relief – especially to those with air conditioning or power.