Superspreader event. Debate canceled. Next weeks meeting between President Trump and joe biden off the table. A town hall replacement on abc. Plus, the cochair of the commission on president ial debates joins us live on what happens next. A new surge . Coronavirus cases climbing in the u. S. The spike were seeing in hospitalized americans as the cdc expands its covid risk warning. What it means for millions of americans. And the heat is on. With the season on the line the. Good morning, and lets get right to the breaking news. Hurricane delta slamming ashore in louisiana overnight as a category 2 storm, but weakening as it moves over land. Delta lashing the gulf coast with 100mileperhour winds. The dangerous storm surge, over nine feet in some places. And this is the record tenth named storm to hit the u. S. This Hurricane Season. We have Team Coverage on the ground in hardhit louisiana, where more than 500,000 people are now waking up without power. Rob is in lake charles with more on where delta is headed. But first, lets go to ginger in lafayette with more. Ginger, good morning. Yeah, whit, officially five landfalling hurricanes this season alone. Thats something that we havent done since thatk epi05. Downtown lafayette here, we had 75 mile per hour gusts. The tree damage littering the streets. But the boards worked. Power out in a lot of places and the brunt of this storm rllt j area hit by laura just six weeks ago. That is the sound of hurricane delta just before making landfall in louisiana. A category 2 hurricane when it roared onshore. Peeling roofs off of buildings, waves and surge lapping at the land in lake arthur. Up to 17 inches of torrential windwhipped rain. Those winds gusting to 100 Miles Per Hour. The Destructive Force lashing buildings, snapping utility poles. Leaving hundreds of thousands without power across louisiana and texas. The fierce winds tossing this mobile home right onto the road and knocking this tractor trailer onto its side. Deltas broad push of water forcing storm surge up to nine feet near fresh water canal locks. The storm flooding lowlying neighborhoods in welsh. Whats left of delta rocketing inland now with rain and gusting winds in arkansas and mississippi. Louisianas governor warning folks, though, not to let their guard down. Do ats li b dont go out sightseeing. Reporter this timelapsed video from lake charles showing just how quickly conditions worsened. Just before landfall, the relative cooler water near the coast and wind shear shredding the storm. Believe it or not, this is the eye of whats left of delta. I mean, we still have a hurricane and this is not what a hurricane or a Tropical Storm eye looks like. I bet in many of them where the winds are calm, everything goes clear and at night you can even see the stars, that is not happening tonight, because this storm got sheared and ripped apart and it is the epitome of what we call a dirty eye. And just to my west in lake charles, rob marciano right there in that town already hit so hard just six weeks ago in hurricane laura. Just incredible. Lake charles, louisiana, getting hit with yet another hurricane. Those utility vehicles you see back there, theyve been here for weeks trying to put this town back together from the last hurricane and now theyre getting slammed again. Robs been down here a lot. We have the official map that no one really wanted to see, here it is the, ten landfalling storms. If you dive in little closer, you can see how close hurricane laura, just six weeks ago, close to hurricane delta. Again, i dont want to come back here, but Hurricane Season goes until the end of november. Thats a good reminder, ginger, it is not over yet. Lets head to rob in lake charles tracking this storm as well, and, rob, you were just in lake charles not that long ago, tracking laura, the devastation was already there from that first storm. Good morning. What a heartbreaking 24 hours, really, nearly two months here in lake charles. The damage you see behind me is from the last hurricane. We got the drone up now. The sun is coming up. Should be a pretty day and ahe the ain the winds gusted to 96 Miles Per Hour here and we had winds really blowing over hurricane strength for several hours, as lake charles experienced probably the worst of what hurricane delta had to offer. Heres where delta is now, northeast of monroe, weve got flood watches and warnings that are posted for heavy rain on 12 inches about here in lake charles on top of the 90plus mile per hour winds. Tornado watch in effect for parts of the Florida Panhandle and this is weakening quickly thankfully but it will bring that sheet metal its razor sharp when it flies around, one officer had to dodge that. Earlier, i got to speaker with the mayor of lake charles, louisiana, heres what he had to say. Even though the winds from delta werent as strong as lauras i think we actually had more flooding from delta, theres a lot of roads that are impassable right now from water and we didnt have as many roads that were impassable from water after laura. So, right now, we do have reports of localized flooding. Some structures have flooded. Obviously, even with category 2 winds, every roof that had a tarp on it, i can almost guarantee you, some or all of those tarps are off those roofs. So, we definitely had hurricane hit us last night. I know the sheriff was worried about the storm worrying about it, his guys having to go out at the dark of night and that would be a dangerous situation. The roads, you can get around. Theres debris obviously all over the place but when are you going to let residents back in . Are you going to lift the evacuation orders today . I do not think at all they will be lifted today. And thats got to be a decision made on a parish level. Its a parish evacuation order. I certainly have some input into that, but i absolutely dont think it would be lifted today. For americans that want to help, mr. Mayor, what do you need right now . Well, we need your prayers. We need you to think about us and also, if you find it upon your heart, let me tell you, the most nimble resource is money and theres going to be a lot of nonprofits that need a lot of help. Nic, thanks so much. I know weve talked more than youd like to in the last two months but as Hurricane Season comes to a close i certainly hope we dont have to have this discussion again. The Community Foundation of southwest louisiana a Great Charity if you all want to help. Dan, everyone down here could use our help. Dan. Indeed, thank you, rob. We really appreciate your work out there and our thoughts are with the people along the gulf coast this morning. Were going to switch it up now and turn to politics. In just a few hours, President Trump will host his first inperson event and he plans to resume his rallies on monday. Abcs rachel scott has the latest on both of the candidates. Rachel, good morning to you. Reporter dan, good morning. The president is pushing forward with an aggressive schedule as he makes his return to the campaign trail. Beled a supeder evt, satri but today, just days out of the hospital, the president will be bringing hundreds of people together again. This morning, President Trump gearing up to address hundreds of supporters from the white house balcony for the First Time Since testing positive for covid19. I feel really good. I feel very strong. Right now im medicationfree. Im not taking any medications. Reporter in a fox news interview airing overnight promising he is in good shape. I have been retested and i havent even found out numbers or anything yet, but ive been retested and i know im either at the bottom of the scale or free. Reporter but with the white house still refusing to reveal when the president last tested negative we dont have that. Well, i dont personally know. For medical reasons were not revealing specifics. Reporter there are lingering questions about his health, and the nations top Infectious Disease expert says the last large gathering hosted at the white house turned into a superspreader event. We had a superspreader event in the white house. And it was in a situation where people were crowded together and were not wearing masks, so the data speak for themselves. Reporter 34 people connected to the white house have now tested positive for covid19. Some seen close together, even hugging at that rose garden ceremony without masks. Still the president has been itching to get back to normal. While infected with the virus returning to the oval office to work and over the last 48 hours doing a round of interviews with conservative outlets claiming hes cured. I can tell you its a cure and im talking to you today because of it and, you know, because i think i could have been a bad i could have been a bad victim. Reporter but that experiment al antibody treatment the president is touting has only been given to about ten people outside Clinical Trials according to the company and his assessment is at odds with his own health expert. You cant make the determination that thats a cure. Reporter with the green light from his doctor, the president plans to be back on the campaign trail monday with a rally in florida. It comes as Health Officials link nine coronavirus cases to a september rally in minnesota. Joe bidens Campaign Calling those inperson events reckless. Good luck. Make sure i wouldnt show up unless you had a mask and were distanced. Reporter but the two wont face off next week as planned. The second president ial debate officially called off. And when that debate called off each of the candidates will now be participating in competing town halls, joe will be right here on abc on thursday and a member of the commission of president ial debates telling the new york times, this is the first time in seven decades that a president ial debate has been canceled going on to say that the real loser is the american voter. Dan. Rachel, thank you. Speaking of the debates, in our next hour the cochair on the commission on president ial debates will be here to talk about the cancellation. What we can expect at the final debate, which at this point is still on, and his response to the Trump Campaigns allegations of bias on that debate commission. Whit, over to you. Turning now to the pandemic. The World Health Organization announcing a new global record in daily coronavirus cases. The cdc now forecasting another 12,000 to 20,000 deaths are possible by election day. This, as ohios governor pleads with people to wear masks calling not wearing them the biggest threat to our economy. Abcs trevor ault has the latest. Reporter this morning, ten months into the coronavirus outbreak a new record high in global cases. 350,000 infections reported friday, europe topping 100,000 for the first time and more than half the United States seeing cases climb. Whats been really heartbreaking for me is seeing entire families admitted to the hospital. Reporter the number of hospitalized americans jumping to 34,000, a spike of 4300 in five days with 11 states hitting record hospitalizations over the course of the week. And this is definitely putting a tremendous amount of pressure on our community. Reporter potentially explosive viral spread reportedly happening around the country. In maine, 400 people possibly exposed after a hockey ref tested positive. A week into inperson learning in floridas miamidade county, four schools now reporting cases. One wisconsin bar owner sharing his battle from a hospital bed. I want everybody to know that this is real. Reporter and in the small oklahoma town of chelsea, every Police Officer is now in quarantine. We were fearful of this ever since march. Reporter and Health Experts fear the country could continue trending backward. White House Coronavirus Task force coordinator dr. Deborah birx warning the northeast. We do see some of those early signs that theres early asymptomatic silent spread. Reporter but already so many families torn apart. 17yearold alvia ramirez, a High School Senior in north dakota, the states youngest to die from the virus. So i hope people do wear masks and take this virus seriously so no one else has to go through this pain that we are going through. Reporter and around the country theres more signs of industries bracing for a long fight against this virus. Here on broadway performances are now canceled until at least june of next year. Eva. Trevor ault for us in new york. Lets bring in abc chief medical correspondent dr. Jennifer ashton. Dr. Ashton, thanks so much for being with us. President trump spoke about his condition last night in his first oncamera interview since being diagnosed with coronavirus. Did anything medically jump out at you and does it say anything about whether its safe for him to resume those inperson events . From a medical perspective, eva, nothing really surprising there. It was really just the patients perspective of his experience with covid19. It would have been nice to hear how the first lady is doing and i really have to caution, there are so many doctors trying to connect the dots on the president s personal health right now and his disease course. Unless you are looking at the president s medical record, that is complete speculation and in terms of his appearance today and resuming schedule i think we have to go by the cdc guidance which says clearly, ten days from the first onset of symptoms or two sequential negative tests 24 hours apart. It is very possible that the president will be meeting both of those criteria but we cannot speculate on this. Yeah, dr. Ashton, theres a lot we dont know. A lot of details that we still dont know. The cdc has added overweight to its possible risk factors for getting severely ill from covid19. How concerned should people be about those extra pounds right now . Well, i think they should always be concerned. Overweight is defined as a body mass index of 25 to 30. Obese is above 30. When youre talking about the overweight category, thats about 70 of the u. S. Population, so it is a lot of people. Theory is that that fat tissue is hormonally and metabolically active and increases inflammation. So right now just one more reason to tackle but to be clear, eva, both overweight and obesity are considered chronic conditions. So this is not easy to just deal with on the drop of the dime. Yeah, definitely not easy for people dealing with that. The cdcs study also has something on hotspots showing an urgent need to address transmission among young adults. Why is that such a crucial component to containing the virus . So they tracked data in june and july of hotspots all over the country and found that there was an increase in rates amongst people 0 to 24 years of age and then 3 weeks to 4 weeks later we saw subsequent increases in older, more highrisk adults really driving the point home that this population, 24 and younger is key, not just for their own protection, but for the protection of the more vulnerable groups. Dr. Jen ashton, always helping us break down the science. We appreciate you. Whit, over to you. Eva, another big story were following this morning, the suspects in that alleged plot to kidnap michigans governor facing a judge in court as new images reveal where they allegedly hatched their plan. Officials say 2 of the 13 men arrested lived at the Rural Property they say served as a Training Facility for the militia group. Abc news has learned the authorities are going through documents, computers and any smartphones they can get access to, in an urgent effort to determine if there are any other coconspirators. We started by talking about the breaking news, the weather in along the gulf coast. Lets go back to rob who is in lake charles, louisiana, with a look at more of whats going on there and across the country. Hey, rob. Hi, good morning again, dan. The good news here is that the sun is up. Its a dry day. A calm day. As they restart the recovery process. Again. Certainly a few steps back after another hurricane came through just six weeks after the first one. This is what delta looked like during the Late Afternoon across downtown, nower the civic center there that got hammered during hurricane laura. Stuff flying around in those winds. Dangerous situation there. Delta came through with a western eye wall really hitting this town hard. All right, the center of it now, will bring it to where we see thunderstorms that could bring oe ant watch floridapa we ving so. Eventually this gets into the northeast. A little sunlight here with the clouds, highs today just near 70. Today with temperatures below average, our wind shifts to a dry offshore component for sunday. From category 4 laura to a relapse of covid during the recovery from that, now to hurricane delta, this community has been through so much. Well continue to report on their progress. Well see you guys in the next halfhour. Whit, over to you. No question about it. Just a layering of tragedies and impact. Rob, thank you so much. Well come back to you soon. Lets transition now to a lighter note, although perhaps maybe not if youre a lakers fan. Thats because the miami heat keep their hopes alive in the nba playoffs taking game five in a matchup that went down to the buzzer. Janai is here with the highlights. Janai, good morning. Hey, good morning, the lakers showed up in their black mamba uniforms hoping to take it all home the l. A. , but thats not what happened. In game five of the nba finals. Ended blll the end with the lead going back and forth changing hands seven times in just the last three minutes. Imagine that for fans watching. Lebron james and jimmy butler came ready to fight. King james scoring 40 trying to seal the deal for his fourth championship, but jimmy butler was not about to let that happen sinking both foul shots to put the heat in front with just over 21 seconds left on the clock. Danny green had a chance to bring e lakersacth and a lastsy king james missing the bucket at the buzzer. Sounded, yeah, keeping the heat alive. Game six is on abc sunday night at 7 30 eastern, and dan, i know you wanted to add some postgame highlights or insight. Yeah, i thought the tight end did a great job. Yes, thats right. Yeah. Oh, goodness. Coming up on