early votes cast could break turnout records. also tonight the state of emergency in florida. hurricane and tropical storm watches up as subtropical storm nicole takes aim. we ve got the new track. the new numbers on child rsv cases. 77% of pediatric hospital beds filled nationwide. what parents need to know. the chaos at twitter under new owner elon musk. after laying off nearly half its workforce the company reportedly scrambling to hire some key workers back. and is facebook next in line for mass layoffs? and the world record powerball jackpot. nearly $2 billion up for grabs tonight. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening, everyone, from our nbc news election headquarters. with 40 million early votes already cast, millions of election day voters will soon add their votes as the first poll openings here in the east are now just hours away. control of congress and the direction of the country to be decided. democrats defending their slim
probably buy an island for the family. reporter: so just how much luck do you need? enough to be that one in 292 million. you ve got to be in it to win it. reporter: on a daily basis new jersey typically sees about half a million dollars in powerball ticket sales. but with a jaw-dropping jackpot on the line players are buying 16 times that. it s an excitement experts say engineered by lottery organizers, who are making jackpots easier to grow and harder to win by increasing number combinations in recent years. so they want really long odds on the jackpot so that we get occasional billion-dollar jackpots. it felt like a dream that i couldn t wake up from. reporter: timothy schultz knows more than anyone that it only takes one ticket to win. he scored $28 million in 1999. first thing you should do is secure the ticket. the next thing you want to do is seek financial advisers and estate attorneys. reporter:
mega millions ball of 7. excuse me, chris? when i realized i didn t win, i lost interest in the story. you re boycotting. not fair. two stories steve knows because we have been working together since 1963. i don t like millionaires in balloons who try to cross the atlantic or the pacific and i don t like lottery stories. it s a dollar and a dream. but it s never going to happen. it just happened for two people. who are those people? we re going to find out. in addition to the great big jackpots, 20 people got all the numbers right except the mega millions final ball number, which i think it is 7. by the way, the reason the jackpot got so big and i know brian hates this story can you whisper it. here s the thing. the lottery organizers changed how high the
these tracks will be out of commission. it s a very popular line and no direct service is working now between new york and boston. don. susan, thank you very much for that. let s be realistic. you have a much better chance of being struckly lightning than winning the powerball drawing. the odds a mere one in 175 million. but that hasn t stopped lottery fever from spreading all across the us. the jackpot sits at $600 million and the drawing is just hours away. cnn s lisa desjardins breaks down how much you will end up with if you do win. reporter: yeah, the odds are not so good for winning the powerball jackpot. they are one in 175 million but i guess lucky for lottery organizers that s not the number people are paying attention to. everyone is watching this one, $600 million. that s how much you will win if you are the single winner in
country. here in new jersey alone, 6 million tickets were sold just yesterday. the odds in winning are 1 in 176 million. and if no one picks the winning numbers tonight, lottery organizers are actually considering moving the next drawing from atlanta to times square. and that next drawing could be around $975 million. but customers we spoke with today said they don t think it will happen. and remember, i have the winning ticket so it won t happen. the winning number will be chosen tonight hopefully. and i wish did have the ticket but my team, we all went into a company pool so we will not be seeing you on monday. thank you. my pleasure. nice to talk to you. thousands of credit card holders could be at risk right now after a possible breach of security. mastercard and visa say law enforcement officials are investigating the possible theft of customers account information. the companies are urging people to contact the bank that issued