Residents of tornado-ravaged Illinois town ask Blackhawks for Stanley Cup visit

A few Coal City residents are urging the Blackhawks to bring the Stanley Cup to their town, which was ravaged by a tornado Monday night.

The city, about 70 miles southwest of Chicago, has been hit by tornadoes twice in as many years.

A photo of a boarded-up garage surfaced on Twitter this week with the spray-painted message: “Lord Stanley, please come 2 Coal City.”

Several people have grabbed hold of the social media message and taken up the cause for Coal City.

The tornado that struck Coal City and the Braidwood area was an EF-3 tornado with peak winds of 160 mph, the weather service said Tuesday.

The EF-3 designation is the third highest on the scale that measures the strength of tornadoes. EF-3 tornadoes packs winds of between 136 and 165 mph.

You can view photos of the damage here.