El Palacio Closes

Pictured is one of twin hombres standing to greet customers for the last 50 years.

El Palacio, the Mexican restaraunt perhaps best known for the best queso cheese dip in town closed it's doors last Friday for the last time.

A Huntsville icon, the restaurant harkens back to a by-gone era when there was no roller coaster running down the center of town - or fast food drive thrus of any kind. Both of which apparantly contributed to it's final demise.

Apparent Microburst Smacks Five Points

This is the scene repeated dozens of times in the Five Points Community today, especially in the area concentrated just south of Oakwood Ave. It seems worthy to note the large number of larger limbs from healthy trees along with the more usual debris blown from strong storms.

In this area, the pattern doesn't seem consistent with straight line winds leading me to wonder if an f1 tornado actually passed without actually touching down, or perhaps a particularly large microburst.

Residents were seen milling about earlier today surveying the damage and moving limbs to the curb. Many had a look of chagrin on their faces no doubt reminded of the tornado in 2010 that did touch down causing structural damage to many homes from Olde Town to the area pictured here.

While I did not see any structural damage from last evenings storm, siding was blown off one home, and at least one roof turbine was seen sitting on the ground.

JIM