Nonessential businesses. A crisis in wisconsin with four out of ten tests coming back positive. Hospitals reporting a critical staffing shortage. The mayor of milwaukee joins us live this morning. Trail of destruction. Hurricane zeta devastating the badly battered south. Now the new coastal storm barreling towards the northeast. Millions bracing for the first snow of the season on halloween weekend. New fallout from the Breonna Taylor case. The Police Officer shot in the operation that killed her now suing taylors boyfriend Kenneth Walker for shooting him. I was a victim as well. My family has been a victim in this. The outrage this morning. Fire pit alert. With sales soaring as temperatures drop new warnings on the hot products hidden risk. A look at the potential dangers. Our eyeopening demo. Monthlong black friday. How the big brands are getting a jump on holiday deals this year. Where you can save big right now. Make it pop d. J. Blow my speakers up its our countdown to halloween. Were celebrating like never before, the tiniest new stars of our annual spooktacular and the costumes that will have you howling. Plus on this halloween eve well treat to you a super surprise that will make your friday only on gma. Good morning, america. Thank you for being with us on this friday morning. We are celebrating halloween early this morning. A day early. We have some special guests that are taking over times square. We sure do. Check them out. Theyre right there. All kinds of kids decked out in their halloween costumes. Plus scary sight right outside our window in times square. Ooh. Dont be scared, george. Its good to see the kids dressed up on halloween this year. Well have a lot more coming up on that. First, the latest on the race for the white house. Four days until the final vote, focusing on the Battle Ground states. Both trump and biden going to three states each and tomorrow biden and president obama will campaign for the first time. Mary bruce starts us off. Good morning. Reporter good morning, george. We have officially entered the lastminute scramble. Both candidates are cramming in as many events as possible and colliding in critical battleground states and theyre eyeing the same turf. Both Holding Events in minnesota and wisconsin. If florida goes blue, its over. We are going to win florida. We are going to win four more years in the white house. Reporter the candidates thursday with dueling florida rallies. The state is a must win for the president. Hes held five rallies there this month, more than any other state. But with just four days to go polls show joe biden with a slight edge over donald trump in his adopted home state. Trump trying to sell his record, even as the states economy is taking a hit from the pandemic. Under my leadership, the florida Tourism Industry and Hospitality Industry will come roaring back very soon. Its ready to happen. Were making the turn. Reporter hes touting a new report showing the economy grew at a record 33 annual pace during the third quarter. But economists say its not enough to make up for the massive losses during the first half of the year. Many Americans Still feeling the pain. Over 750,000 filed new unemployment claims just last week. Even with covid cases spiking in the u. S. Hitting a new dire record, more than 88,000 new cases in a single day, trump is still insisting its not a big deal using his own recovery as an example. Youre going to get better. If i can get better, anybody can get better and i got better fast. Reporter but biden is accusing the president of giving up on the pandemic. 16,000 people in florida have been lost and millions of people are out of work, on the edge. They cant see the light at the end of the tunnel. Reporter promising he can tackle the virus and bring the country back. Im not going to shut down the country, but im going to shut down the virus. President trumps superspreader events and hes spreading more virus around the country and here in florida today. Reporter the candidates spouses are also on the road, jill biden in michigan thursday and for the first time this year First Lady Melania Trump joining her husband on the trail. Hello, florida. It is wonderful to be here in our home state. Reporter now joe biden tomorrow is teaming up with his not so secret weapon, former president obama. The two of them holding their first joint in person rally. The president s final sprint includes three stops in pennsylvania tomorrow. Then an all out blitz. Hes planning a dozen events. Weve seen nose 82 million americans have already voted absentee ballots and early vote. For those Still Holding an absentee ballot, its getting pretty late. Reporter were now in crunch time. Across the country more than 90 million absentee ballots were requested. So far about 56 million have been returned. If youre Still Holding on to that in many states it may be too late to mail them. You will want to find a dropin location or vote in person. Either way, george, its time to get out and vote. Mary bruce, thanks very much. Cecelia . More than 82 Million People have already cast their ballots so far smashing the record for early voting but millions of votes are still at stake and in these final days both campaigns are making a play for key groups that could shift the election. Our chief National Affairs correspondent tom llamas is joining us with more now, a Record Number of latinos eligible to vote this year. Reporter thats right, cecilia. We spoke to political experts across several battleground states and told us for joe biden to win he has to pick off some swing voters that went with President Trump four years ago, but also grow those coalitions that always help democrats win. This morning, as many polls tighten across the country, the battle for the white house will come down to who can turn out key voting blocs. In florida, the biggest battleground state hispanics make up more than 2 million registered voters. Nearly 20 of the electorate in that state. The president and joe biden there to make their closing arguments. Were going on to win a record share of the hispanicamerican vote. The Latino Community is the most diverse in the country. The better the community does the better the country does. Reporter new polling suggesting hispanic voters could break for either candidate. One poll has biden up 50 to 34 . Another released that same day shows the president on top, 52 to 46 . Another key voting group that could determine this election, women. Suburban women, will you please like me . Reporter in 2016 the majority of women voted democrat. But according to pew research, the president narrowly won with white women. Now some polling suggesting he could have trouble doing that again. This new National Poll shows biden taking the lead and nationally the gender gap is wide. In fact, some experts say, quote, this election has the potential for the largest gender gap since women were given the right to vote. That gap on full display in households across america. Like the daroccos in massachusetts. Theyve got his and hers Campaign Signs in the yard and while they disagree about politics i go upstairs. I say, i cant i really cant. Its a compromise. Reporter theyre on the same page about the priorities. Whats more important than politics is our relationship. A scene playing out in households around the country. Tom, weve been talking about this. Both making a big push for the latino vote in the final days and interesting thing were seeing, theyre not just focused on the states where there are big latino populations but looking at pennsylvania where they think the latino vote could make or break the campaign for either candidate. Reporter cecelia, thats right. We know the traditional states like texas, nevada, arizona and florida where democrats can take the latino vote for granted. But there are other groups like in georgia and states like pennsylvania. Remember, President Trump won pennsylvania four years ago with 44,000 votes. This year right now in pennsylvania there are half a million eligible latino voters. Cecelia . Yep, the question is will they show up on tuesday . Thanks so much. George, of course, anchoring our live coverage with the entire Powerhouse Political Team at election headquarters in new york, d. C. And delaware. Plus we will have correspondents reporting live from Battle Ground states all across the country on tuesday, november 3rd at 7 00 p. M. Eastern. Michael . More on the coronavirus emergency. With more than 45 million cases worldwide the u. S. Is on the verge of surpassing 9 million with cases up in 48 states. Alex perez joins us now from hard hit kenosha, wisconsin. Good morning, alex. Reporter hey, good morning, michael. Here in wisconsin and across much of the country the numbers are all going in the wrong direction and much concern right now is that there seems to be no peak in sight. This morning an unsettling new record for the united states, 88,500 new coronavirus cases in one day. The highest since the beginning of the pandemic. Ohio governor dewine says theres no place to hide from the virus as cases surpass 3,000 for the first time. The virus is raging throughout the state of ohio. Reporter in wisconsin, the latest numbers grim. Nearly 5,000 new cases reported thursday. The Positivity Rate here, a jawdropping 36. 9 . Hospitals in the state on track to run out of icu beds in as little as two weeks. One in five reporting a critical staffing shortage. I couldnt breathe. I couldnt breathe without the oxygen. Low 60s or 70s and had to have the machine on constantly. Reporter carmen battled covid19 in july, suffering through 45 days on a ventilator, both of her lungs failing. A turn for the better. Nine days ago the 52yearold received a double Lung Transplant saving her life. Its about being responsible, being educated and understanding the power of this virus. Reporter in all right now, 25 states setting new records for cases in the last two weeks. So concerning El Paso County in texas enacting immediately a twoweek shutdown of nonessential businesses. Texas attorney general ken paxton tweeting that the judge has no authority to shut down businesses adding, my office is quickly exploring all legal actions. When youve got the flu season coming at you, youve got, you know, festivities coming up like halloween and thanksgiving, this is a perfect storm. Reporter and with halloween coming up this weekend, real fear the number of people infected across the country could surge even more if changes arent made. Grappling with one of the largest outbreaks in the country the indoor event in south dakota is expected to go on without masks in attendance. The mayor vowing zero tolerances for violations this halloween. Trickortreat outdoor, small groups, masks on, great. Big parties, gatherings, thats not great. If we find out about them, well have to break them up. Reporter and to give you an idea of how serious the situation is here in wisconsin, hospitalizations rate this week jumped 16 compared to last week. George . Okay, alex, thanks very much. Lets bring in the mayor of milwaukee, tom barrett. Mayor barrett, thank you for joining us. The statewide numbers are staggering. 36. 9 Positivity Rate. What are you facing in milwaukee right now . Well, weve seen a sharp increase in our numbers here in the city of milwaukee. Weve had things under control but in the last five, six weeks weve seen about a fivefold increase in the number of cases. We have enough hospital beds now but the alternative care facility we enacted earlier this year. That is starting to receive patients from around the state. But the hospital bed issue and i would say the worker issue is a real issue. Theres a lot of fatigue with the Health Care Workers who have been working around the clock to take care of these patients. What went wrong the last five, six weeks . I think weve got a terribly poisonous political atmosphere here. The governor has done a really noteworthy job in trying to enact restrictions. The Republican Leadership in the legislature and the Republican Supreme Court have thwarted him time and time again. Just yesterday the governor asked the Supreme Court to take up the case that challenges his ability to put restrictions on restaurants and other places. Right now its a house divided in wisconsin. Thats very unfortunate. Youre putting restrictions in milwaukee on large gatherings, on indoor dining. Is it time to ban indoor designing like they have in chicago . We are not taking anything off the table. Again, weve seen increases in the last several weeks here. We want to make sure were helping the workers in those restaurants. I am concerned. I look at these numbers on a daily basis, sometimes three or four types a day to see what we could be doing. Nothing is off the table right now because the numbers are growing at an unabated level and its not acceptable. What does this all mean for election day . Well, weve seen probably half of our voters already vote. Thats a good thing and put in a lot of safeguards for our voters. Weve got 15 early voting sites or 14 sites so people can vote in a safe way. Weve got 170 locations. We had only five in the springtime because we had lost so many workers but weve put millions of dollars into giving people different alternatives to vote. So we think thats going to be very, very safe, unlike april where it wasnt safe. Its going to be safe on november 3rd and up to november 3rd. Anything more you need from the federal government right now . Well, we absolutely need them to continue funding because neither we nor other communities in this state or this nation will be able to do the testing or tracing after the c. A. R. E. S. Act money runs out this. This is not something that we can afford. Even the states cant afford it. Congress has to come back and has to allocate money for us for testing, has to allocate money for tracing because weve got thousands of tests that are occurring every single day and you saw what the positivity numbers are. Its in the 30s in this state. We have to make sure people know when theyre sick so they can stay away from other people. Its imperative that congress acts. You all are ground zero right now. Mayor, thanks for joining us this morning. Michael . We turn to the destruction thats left in the wake of deadly hurricane zeta. Over 1 million still without power and ginger has the latest. Good morning, ginger. Reporter good morning, michael. The remnants of zeta out in the ocean but, boy, did it do damage and killed at least six people and the video that youre seeing here is from atlanta, georgia, a few of those deaths came from georgia. It was just racing through the southeast and the midatlantic. In north carolina, Western North carolina, you had flooding rains so it wasnt just wind. But, boy, when it got all the way up to new york city the wind did gust up to 40 Miles Per Hour and thats where we saw that crane. Now its supposed to do that. They let it go with the wind so it doesnt hurt anything but it did start to take down a couple of things. So thats called weather vaning but do we have our own deal, the rain left over with the other system and the snow on the back side. This is going to be interesting as we get into prehalloween here. Snow could reach all the way down to just north of new york city and if its really bursting around 9 00, 9 30 this morning we could see a little snowflake mix in. It will move out. By this afternoon it clears out. Tomorrow, clear and very cold. One of the scariest maps ive seen in a long time feeling subfreezing. I miss the summer. Going to be a cold halloween. Thank you so much. With the final votes just four days away paul ruud, he is doing his part to make sure everyone is using their voice and giving them a sugar boost handing out cookies to voters waiting in line in the pouring rain. The actor donning plastic gloves and a mask as he handed out the sweet treats and he posed with fans at the Barclays Center in brooklyn saying to voters, quote, i want to say thank you for coming out and voting and doing your part. They were not homemade cookies, by the way, just if you were wondering. Investigative report. So much engagement on voting. Its really something. We are following a lot of other headlines including new fallout from the Breonna Taylor case. The Police Officer shot in the operation that killed her now suing taylors boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, the outrage over that this morning. New warning about Fire Pit Safety with sales soars as temperatures drop. Weve got an eyeopening demonstration of the potential dangers. Plus, black friday sales coming early this year with so many shopping online due to covid big brands are getting the jump on holiday deals. Where you can save big now, but first lets go back to ginger. Reporter and michael, i am just back from the gulf coast. The last thing you want to see is this, an area of thunderstorms that looks like it will form by early next week, 80 shot of doing so. As it goes towards the yucatan we will watch that but its name will be eta. Your local weather in 30 seconds. First the weekend forecast sponsored by amazon. Good morning. Welcome to friday. Im abc7 news meteorologist mike nicco. Clouds will roll back to the coast. Cooler sunshine there. The rest of us are sunny and warmer than average. It will be warmer heading into november. Theres a potential for wet weather this time next week. For today, you can see the 60s along the coast in San Francisco, low to mid 70s around the bay. Mid 70s to near 80 inland. 40s and 50s reporter one great part about the cold on the northeast at least is that will be clear and you can see the second full moon and the smallest full moon of the entire year. Second full moon of the month, i should say but stil