Raine Forest News Today

Is the first tv news organization allowed in to see the devastation firsthand. cnns martin savidge has up a close look. >> carlos makes a living drive this road. >> i myself go two to four times a week. my staff was up there pretty much every day with two to three vehicles. >> reporter: more than a million tourists make the way up here to the only tropical rain forest in the u.s. forest system or at least they used to until hurricane maria. two weeks after the hurricane, cnn flew a drone at the ...

The first teams in thought to open roads blocked by trees and now fighting off landsides and main access to the forest supplies one-fifth of the islands entire water. >> 20% of the water? >> 20% of the water comes from here so its important that we clear access into those water intakes to the water supply can be restored. >> reporter: there are 23 species of trees here found no where else. their fate unknown. no wonder the first people who got to the park were shocked what they found. even now f...

Forest. >> it cut the forest in half and complete took out all of the leaves. there was nothing green here at all. >> reporter: her team built this talker to study the top of the tree canopy and nothing to study now but open sky. her original experiment may be in ruins, but shes got the front row seat for a brand new one. >> this is nature. you know? this is what happens in this forest. we have hurricanes that come through. and my job is to study what happens. >> reporter: there are signs the ra...