Rosary
date: label: Associated Date
content: August - September 2005
name: label: user
content: Ricks, Robert
label: referenced
content: National Weather Service
notes: label: Description
content: Weather forecasting, like air traffic controlling, can at times be an unnerving occupation. Dramatic changes in weather patterns have the potential to affect millions of people, as do warnings issued by the National Weather Service, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
label: Description
content: Robert Ricks, chief NWS forecaster on duty at the Slidell, Louisiana weather station the morning of August 28, studied the computer maps of Hurricane Katrina's movement across the Gulf of Mexico. At 10:11 that morning, he quickly composed an urgent and unambiguous weather alert, what became the most accurate prediction of Katrina's impact. "A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH . . ." it began. "MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS . . . PERHAPS LONGER . . . ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL . . . ALL WOOD-FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED . . . WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS . . . NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED . . . LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED . . . "
label: Description
content: To comfort him during his forecasting assignment that day, and in the chaotic days immediately after, Ricks carried this Catholic rosary given to him by his grandmother. He later donated it to the Smithsonian as a symbol of his own perilous journey through the arms of Hurricane Katrina.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Italy
label: referenced
content: United States: Louisiana
label: referenced
content: United States: Louisiana, Slidell
label: referenced
content: United States: Gulf Coast
topic: label: related event
content: Hurricane Katrina
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Government, Politics, and Reform
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content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Family & Social Life
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content: Religion
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content: Art
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Robert Ricks
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2006.0220.01
label: accession number
content: 2006.0220
label: catalog number
content: 2006.0220.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Rosary
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 22 in; 55.88 cm
label: Measurements
content: beads: 1/4 in; x .635 cm