WINTER GARDEN, Fla. -- Power outages are almost guaranteed with big storms, but how big the impact will be from Hurricane Florence is unclear, which is why crews from Duke Energy are heading up to the Carolinas to help restore power after the storm.

Duke Energy officials believe flooding may be the largest factor that may impact response times.

Hurricane Florence is expected to linger over the Carolinas and dump catastrophic amounts of rain. And since water and electricity do not mix, there may be some areas crews may have to wait until flood waters drop to safe levels to begin work.

More than a dozen lineman pulled out of the Duke Energy Operations Center in Winter Garden just before 7 a.m. Wednesday, and they are just a fraction of the crews that will be leaving Central Florida.

More than 1,100 Duke Energy employees from across Florida will be deployed to the Carolinas later Wednesday.

That number is about 10 times less than the amount of workers who responded to Hurricane Irma, but a Duke Energy spokesperson says depending on the factors of Hurricane Florence, more workers could be deployed.

Those lineman will be stationed as close as possible to where Florence is expected to make landfall and they say they are ready for the possible dangers that await.

"The work is very dangerous if you don't have the proper, the safety stuff you need. We're going to get there and have safety meetings to talk about it so we'll have everything in line to be safe," said Josh Wilson, a Duke Energy lineman.

The crews heading out will be working 16-hours days once the power restoration efforts begin. In addition to the 1,100 Duke workers leaving Florida, an additional 1,000 workers from the Midwest region will be joining them.

The National Hurricane Center is warning of a triple threat in the Carolinas, from life-threatening flood waters, storm surge and damaging winds.

All factors that will determine how many more Duke Energy workers have to go up to the Carolinas to help out.