Tornado is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in Kanawha County

Kanawha County, West Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 200,073 people, 86,226 households, and 55,960 families residing in the county. The population density was 222 people per square mile . There were 93,788 housing units at an average density of 104 per square mile...

, West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 1,111 at the 2000 census, at which time it was a census-designated place

Census-designated place

A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...

 (CDP). It is now part of the Upper Falls

Upper Falls, West Virginia

Upper Falls is an unincorporated census designated place in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,701.The Coal River bisects the community and gives it its name from the cascading waters of its Upper Falls.-Geography:...

 CDP. The ZIP Code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

 is 25202.

Geography

Tornado is located at 38°20′30"N 81°50′58"W (38.341801, -81.849474).

According to the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the CDP had a total area of 3.7 square miles (9.5 km²), of which, 3.6 square miles (9.3 km²) of it was land and 0.1 square miles (0.2 km²) of it (2.17%) was water.

Demographics

As of the Census of 2000, there were 1,111 people, 419 households, and 330 families residing in the CDP. The population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 309.0 people per square mile (119.2/km²). There were 437 housing units at an average density of 121.6/sq mi (46.9/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 97.21% White, 0.36% African American, 0.27% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 0.09% from other races

Race (United States Census)

Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 1.98% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.54% of the population.

There were 419 households out of which 37.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.7% were married couples

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 8.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 21.2% were non-families. 17.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.01.

In the CDP the population was spread out with 26.8% under the age of 18, 6.2% from 18 to 24, 32.2% from 25 to 44, 23.7% from 45 to 64, and 11.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 98.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.7 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $50,000, and the median income for a family was $50,350. Males had a median income of $31,932 versus $25,670 for females. The per capita income

Per capita income

Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the CDP was $18,999. About 2.3% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.3% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

History of the name

Upper Falls, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 was discovered in 1742 by John Peter Salley

John Peter Salley

John Peter Salley was born in Germany and traveled to America in the early 18th century. He was an explorer who led expeditions of discovery from Canada to Florida. He discovered coal in Boone County in western Virginia near the Coal River and the current day city of Racine. He was born in the...

 during an expedition along the Coal River

Coal River (West Virginia)

The Coal River is a tributary of the Kanawha River in southern West Virginia. It is formed near the community of Alum Creek by the confluence of the Big and Little Coal Rivers, and flows generally northward through western Kanawha County, past the community of Upper Falls and into the Kanawha...

. Today, the community is in West Virginia, which gained independent statehood in 1863.

Since the earliest European settlers

European colonization of the Americas

The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. The first Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement in present day Newfoundland...

 moved into the area in the 1700s, the community, named for the cascading waters of the adjacent river, was known as Upper Falls, Upper Falls of Coal, Upper Falls of Coals, Upper Falls Coal River, Upper Falls of Coal River, Upper Falls of the Coal River, Upper Falls on Coal River and Upper Falls Coal River Bridge.

The Upper Falls of Coal Post Office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

, the first to serve

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

 the area, was established in 1851. During Reconstruction, federal

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

 officials closed it in 1880. When residents forced its reopening through political pressure in 1881, federal authorities retaliated against this "whirlwind of protest" by renaming the post office "Tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

". They closed it again in 1882 and were forced to open it again in 1886.

A community initiative

Initiative

In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote...

is planned to restore the name of the Upper Falls Post Office.

External links

• Upper Falls Community Association