UPDATED: Power Restored in Berkley

Power was restored Tuesday night to more than 1,000 customers who lost service after a severe thunderstorm blew through Berkley in the afternoon, downing multiple wires.

DTE's outage map showed only two customers remained without power at 9:30 Tuesday night in Berkley. At the outage's peak, 1,049 customers were without power in the city.

"There are a couple circuits involved, so it will come back up gradually," DTE spokesman Scott Simons explained around 8:15 p.m.

Simons said the downed wires were caused by storm damage, although he could not say whether wind or a lightning strike was the culprit.

Earlier, resident Chris Olson reported on the Berkley Patch Facebook page that a power line was down at the corner of Webster and Kipling; Nate Ross also commented that a wire was down on Webster near Robina.

"We've got multiple wires down and a pole on fire," BPS Deputy Director Robert North said shortly after 5 p.m.

BPS Sgt. Pete Kelly confirmed at least two downed wires along Webster. Neighbors in the area said that while the wires were down on Webster, the outages hit closer to . Kelly estimated that the wires came down at approximately 4:30 p.m.

Webster was blocked off from Robina to Coolidge Highway during the repairs, according to Berkley resident and Patch contributor Alissa Malerman. The pole that caught fire appeared to have been extinguished, she said.

"Anybody who sees a downed power line should stay at least 20 feet away from it and anything it gets in contact with," DTE's Simons said, adding that downed wires should be reported by calling 800-477-4747.

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning that included southeast Oakland County.

"At 409 pm edt, national weather service doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing damaging winds in excess of 60 mph," said the NWS warning, which expired at 5:30 p.m. "Penny size hail may also accompany these damaging winds."

A hazardous weather outlook remains in place tonight throughout southeast Michigan, which could experience more thunderstorms, the NWS said.

Stay tuned to Berkley Patch for updates. Have you been affected? E-mail your observations and photos to Leslie.Ellis@patch.com.