A Mebane family was trapped after floodwaters destroyed the only bridge to their home. Now they’re using a muddy field to escape — with no timeline for repairs.
MEBANE, N.C. — A Mebane family is still cut off after flash flooding washed out the only bridge connecting their home to the main road. Now, they’re relying on a muddy field to get in and out — and they don’t know when they can rebuild.
Cheyenne Wynn says the fear hit her fast the night Tropical Storm Chantal swept through. Her boyfriend was trying to make it home but found water rushing over the bridge. When he stepped out to check it, he realized the road had washed out entirely.
“I was just thinking — we’re stuck. If anything happened, no ambulance could get to us,” Cheyenne said. “The safest place for us to be was at my parents’ house.”
Her father, Freddie Wynn, wasted no time. He drove a Gator through a flooded field to rescue Cheyenne, her boyfriend, and their twin baby girls — who are just 9 months old.
“It’s the only thing we could do,” Cheyenne said. “We loaded up the babies and got out through the field.”
Freddie says the damage started with a new drainage system at the top of the hill — one that funneled Chantal’s floodwater straight down his driveway. The surge tore through the road, stripping away earth on both sides of a bridge he says his father and a neighbor built more than 40 years ago.
“It’s mostly still standing,” he said. “But the ground around it is gone.”
Because the road is privately maintained, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) will not step in to repair the bridge or surrounding road. Freddie says he’s reached out to NCDOT and the City of Mebane, asking for help addressing the drainage system and guidance on what size culvert pipe to install.
“Until they fix the drainage, we can’t move forward,” he said. “We’re just waiting on answers.”
In the meantime, the family has no choice but to use a muddy field as their only access point — a field that also floods when storms roll through.
“Every time it rains, I wonder if we’ll get stuck again,” Cheyenne said.
Freddie worries not just about the field becoming impassable, but about emergency services being unable to reach his daughter and grandbabies in time if something were to go wrong.
"There’s no way a fire truck or ambulance is getting in there right now,” he said. “That’s why I keep telling them — come to our house when it rains.”
Freddie says the project manager at a nearby school site has offered to help with equipment when they’re ready — but no one knows how long that will take or how much it will cost.
“We’ve had contractors out, but no estimates yet,” he said. “And all of it will fall on me and one other neighbor.”
Still, Freddie says the support from the community has been strong. Friends have offered labor. His football team coaches even volunteered to bring kids out to move rocks — once the family knows what’s needed.
“We’re grateful for that,” Freddie said. “But we can’t rebuild until we fix the problem that caused this in the first place.”
For now, Cheyenne and her family are focused on staying safe and dry — and hoping the next storm doesn’t make things worse.
Jonathan Rand with the North Carolina Department of Transportation said the following about flooding in a statement sent to WFMY News 2:
"With flooding, the water dictates how and when we assess damage. We can't assess until the waters recede. Roads are prioritized based on the severity of damage and safety impacts. It depends on the storm and where the impacts are. We have 80,000 miles of state-maintained roads and 28,000 that are not state-maintained. Our crews prepare prior to hurricane season and have all the tools ready and available to deploy when needed. Safety is always our top priority.
After a storm hits, our crews work in shifts to clear damage and debris from roadways and assess damage to affected areas."