TAMPA BAY - As Florida deals with the destruction Hurricane Milton left behind in the Tampa Bay area, the Louisiana State Fire Marshal's office has dispatched teams to the state for assistance.

Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces and other first responders from around Louisiana are in the Tampa Bay area of Florida continuing to evacuate residents from their flooded homes.

Trip Haynes, leader of Louisiana USAR Task Force 2 says they are seeing devastation, and hope.

"Today we've been active, we've had our boats in the water, and we've evacuated numerous people from neighborhoods working with another task force from Indiana," Haynes said.

"They still have a lot of people that are without power. The grocery stores, some are open, some are closed, with limited groceries. the people are pulling together like you see everywhere you go in one of these disasters."

Hurricane Milton didn't slam into the coast as hard as expected, but Haynes says a lot of work still needs to be done.

“It's a good thing for all of the citizens of Florida that were spared, however there's still a lot of people in the Tampa Bay area where the storm made landfall that are not doing well but all over the state of Florida is trying to provide resources to all of those people right now," Haynes said.

He says as neighbors, the states will continue to come together. 

"Whenever there's a storm in Louisiana the same task forces in Florida are always there for us," Haynes said.

Louisiana responders expect to be in Florida until Wednesday.