Edna Ruiz saw her two-year-old daughter Estellah’s lips start to turn purple as the child gasped for air. She had asthma attacks before, but this was the worst. When they arrived in the emergency room of El Centro Regional Medical Center about 10 p.m. in January, Estellah had a temperature of 104 degrees. “It’s really scary to know when she’s coughing, she could stop breathing,” Ruiz said. The doctor confirmed Estellah’s asthma diagnosis and prescribed medications that helped her improve and return home.

A report about areas of the unincorporated county that had water quality issues led to some residents calling the Ramona Municipal Water District with concerns, said the district’s general manager. David Barnum told the water board at its March 14 meeting that none of the areas listed in a recent report from the State Water Resources Control Board received water from RMWD, which imports its water from the San Diego County Water Authority.

More than five weeks after erosion damage at Lake Oroville forced residents to flee to high ground, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday announced it had lifted an evacuation advisory. More than 100,000 Butte County residents were given an hour’s notice to evacuate on Feb. 12, when officials feared that a concrete weir on the reservoir could collapse and send a 30-foot wall of water into the valley below. The order took residents by surprise because Department of Water Resources officials had repeatedly assured them that erosion damage to the reservoir’s main and emergency spillways posed no threat.