Late-night lottery win helps hurricane victims
By Kate Northrop
A North Carolina winner of a $466,415 prize from an online lottery game will use her prize to help fellow residents who were affected by Hurricane Helene.
One North Carolina woman aims to undo some of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene with the $466,415 lottery prize she won online.
"Everyone around here has been through a lot lately," Tracy Bell of Banner Elk told the North Carolina Lottery. "I want to help some friends who lost a lot in the storm."
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane in September 2024. By the time it reached North Carolina, it had weakened to a Tropical Storm. However, Helene still ravaged much of the state due to widespread flooding and record levels of rainfall, leaving behind extensive property destruction, power outages, and loss of life.
Bell's mission to help those affected by the storm began on a restless night. She told Lottery officials that she usually has trouble sleeping, so she'll play the lottery online to help her drift off.
One game she particularly enjoys playing is the "Wheel of Bonuses" instant digital game. Last Sunday, she decided to purchase a $10 ticket for the game, and the result stunned her. Bell ended up beating the odds of 1 in 3.1 million to win the top level "Epic jackpot."
"It was pretty amazing. It was pretty late, so I thought I was dreaming," the winner laughed.
Bell scooped up the game's $466,415 progressive jackpot that evening, and on Thursday, March 13, she visited Lottery headquarters in Raleigh to claim her prize. After federal and state taxes, she took home a grand total of $334,656.
With regard to spending the winnings, she has a new car on her wish list. However, she'll be putting in the time and money to aid the Hurricane Helene relief effort.
The "Wheel of Bonuses" jackpot reset to its starting amount of $50,000 when Bell won the big prize. It currently stands at $111,400.
Players may wager anywhere between $0.50 to $30. The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 3.86.
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That is definitely a decent win. Congrats 🎉
My Observation: A number of winners always promise to "do good" when they have their media briefing.
I wonder how many actually do what they say they would do.
If I win, I wouldn't promise anything.
My response when asked what I would do with my winnings would be "I don't have anything planned out right now, I will see what opportunities come my way"
I am sure when the money hits the bank, people could have different thoughts on how they want to spend it. My thoughts
Folks have been killed for smaller lottery wins than this. All I can see is a bunch of hillbillies meeting FEMA with AR-15's what have you. I know folks were frustrated, but believing lies like they did about FEMA was a bit of overkill. Anybody charged....of course not.
OTOH hadn't put anything in my on-line account for months. Just did $25 and they gave me $5 bonus bucks.
You constantly post political lies. By the way, there was written proof on misconduct by FEMA officials. And multiple FEMA people were fired.
The problem is that you Dems continue to try to marginalize segments in our population and think you are so superior . Very bigoted to refer to rural people as hillbillies wanting to steal money. This is why the Dem.party has historically low approval ratings.
Lots of people will keep their word, my brother lives in NC and his wifes Church made food, collected clothes, blankets and toiletries and drove a Uhaul truck to the western part of the State to help out.
They bought diapers, formula, baby wipes , water and dried goods.
The Amish went there and built small homes so people would have shelter.
Went the chips are down Americans will pull together to help one another.
FEMA spent billions housing illegals in New York Hotels, bought them food, Cars and paid for Medical.
They left people in Hawaii , California , North Carolina , Florida, Georgia, High and dry.
They were told to avoid houses with Trump signs and refused to let people live in the houses the Amish built because they had not been inspected, their solution was to leave people in tents for the winter.
Exactly. There was both an internal memo and text messages. Substantial documentation. Three FEMA supervisors were terminated. All of our citizens deserve equal access to FEMA funds.
The leftist dismissal of a certain portion of our citizens is over .
ahh the MISS-INFORMED .. and without a party anymore, left/dems are done for. Glad we have some sense of normalcy now.
VERY nice to see this winner publicly offer help