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Katrina victim wins $97m
09/05/2008 20:00 - (SA)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana - A construction company owner who lost two homes in Hurricane Katrina has claimed a $97m Powerball prize.
When he turned in the winning ticket, Carl Hunter became the largest Powerball winner in Louisiana's history. He won the jackpot in January, but the 73-year-old small businessman waited nearly four months to claim the prize.
An avid lottery player, Hunter said he already had bought a Powerball ticket on January 16 at the gas station less than two blocks from his home in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie. But he stopped at the station again that day to buy milk and got a second "quick pick" ticket.
"I had some change, and $1 was used to buy this ticket," Hunter said on Thursday at the Louisiana Lottery Corp. headquarters in Baton Rouge, where he claimed his prize.
The couple, surrounded by cameras, was decidedly low-key about the multimillion dollar win, saying they didn't have specific plans for the money - besides retirement and the rebuilding of a camp lost to Katrina.
"I'm retiring, you know, naturally," Carl Hunter said.
Hunter took a lump sum payment that will give him $33.9m after taxes, according to lottery officials. Asked why he waited so long to turn in the winning ticket, Hunter said he wanted to wrap up some of his construction work and finish his outstanding contracts.
West Metairie Shell, the gas station where Hunter bought his ticket, will get $25 000 for selling the winning ticket. The station, tucked among brick ranch homes and raised wooden houses in a middle-class neighbourhood, lost its roof during Katrina, and the store was looted.
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