FAIRHOPE, Ala.—The duck-pond area of Fairhope's beach-front park has been closed to traffic this week, while city workers clean up a small river of red clay that flowed off the bluff above the park.

“A part of the bluff sloughed off and fell below causing the red-dirt issue at the duck-pond area,” Public Works Director Jennifer Fidler said July 30. “We worked on it after the last storm, but it needs more work.”

One resident, who lives nearby and asked not to be identified, said a long-lasting solution needs to be found to avoid the collapse of the road at the top of the bluff.

He also said that the red-clay runoff had happened in years past, but he had never seen it this bad, which he attributed to the extremely heavy rainfall this summer.

On Tuesday, July 30, several city vehicles were moved red clay from some parts of the road (probably to a landfill, one worker said), and covered others with trucked-in sand, where there was standing muddy red water.

“We had another bad rainstorm yesterday—two inches in one hour,” Fidler said. “We are cleaning as soon as possible.”