WHEATLAND, Wis. — A flood warning was issued for parts of Kenosha County on Friday. It is in effect until Tuesday morning.

Water levels on the Fox River have already begun to rise as of Friday night, and some roads have closed in Wheatland, Wis. This area receives a fair amount of flood warnings from the National Weather Service.

Paul and Jennifer deLuisa own Luisa’s Pizza in Wheatland, near the river.

They said this warning has brough back memories of some of the worst floods over the last decade and a half.

“We had ‘07, ‘08, ‘13 and then ‘17 was the worst, so if that never happens again, that will be fine, but we had 7 feet down in the basement,” said Paul deLuisa.

Paul breathed a sign of relief as he saw the projections for the latest flood warnings. 

“When I saw the flood warning this time, I looked at the NOAA map and we were at “12.5 which doesn’t affect us here because we are the last of a backup channel.”

Kenosha County has worked to mitigate flood-prone areas through the floodplain buyout program.

Since the program began in the 90s, the county has purchased 128 homes and more than 200 vacant lots along the Fox River.

Kenosha County Planning and Development Director Andy Buehler said he believes the program has made a big impact.

“With these types of levels, this would have been a major concern because there would have been many homes that would be getting water in their first floor, but because of all of these purchases, those low-lying areas, they are vacant now and so we are not really concerned until we see the flood levels get to 14 feet,” said Buehler.

Whether or not flood waters reach their business, it still concerns the deLuisas.

“We just drove through it and we do that to make sure that everything is okay and just constantly checking,” said Jennifer deLuisa.

“We constantly have deliveries and we gotta be able to tell them that certain roads are closed. Sometimes the county highways are closed because they are flooded, so when we do our delivery business, we gotta know where we are at,” added Paul deLuisa .

However, they said they have come to accept the occasional flood is a part of life here near the river and are happy to call this community home.