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Water safe to drink in quake-shaken California town

July 18, 2019 GMT

FILE - In this July 9, 2019 file photo, Private First Class Evan Siebuhr, left, and Private First Class Henry Marquez of the 670th Military Police fill water bottles for residents in Trona, Calif., following two strong earthquakes. Residents of this small Southern California desert community hit hard by this month's big earthquakes no longer need to boil tap water. San Bernardino County authorities announced Wednesday, July 18, 2019, the boil-water notice for Trona and neighboring areas has been lifted and citizens do not need to rely on bottled water. (James Quigg/The Daily Press via AP, File)

TRONA, Calif. (AP) — Residents of a small Southern California desert community hit hard by this month’s big earthquakes no longer need to boil tap water.

San Bernardino County authorities announced Wednesday the boil-water notice for Trona and neighboring areas has been lifted and citizens do not need to rely on bottled water.

The Mojave Desert community of 2,000 residents was strongly shaken by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on July 5 and a magnitude 6.4 foreshock on July 4.

The county says damage assessments resulted in 31 residences red tagged and 51 yellow tagged. Eight commercial buildings were red tagged and four were yellow tagged.

A red tag means a structure is too dangerous to enter. A yellow tag means a structure can be entered briefly for retrieval of essential items.