Katrina evacuee nabs lottery's top prize

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) An evacuee who left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is the first $25,000 winner of the Oklahoma lottery. <br/><br/>Caronell Allen now lives in the Oklahoma City suburb of Bethany

Tuesday, October 18th 2005, 8:19 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) An evacuee who left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is the first $25,000 winner of the Oklahoma lottery.

Caronell Allen now lives in the Oklahoma City suburb of Bethany and claimed his prize at 8:30 yesterday morning. He says he bought the $5.00 ticket at a Buy for Less store on the northwest side of Oklahoma City on Sunday.

Allen, who arrived at his nephew's home about a week after the storm, says he'll put the money in the bank and add it to his anticipated earnings as a construction site laborer. He got the job the day before buying the winning ticket.

As of yesterday, players had claimed more than $4 million in prizes, including 32 ``Lucky Sevens'' top prizes of $777.00 and 20 $5,000 winners.

By 3 PM, lottery sales were estimated at $10.5 million.