( CNN ) -- After more than eight hours of being kept at bay by severe weather and low visibility , helicopter rescue crews found a way to rescue four hikers stranded in a raging Southern California creek and ferry them to a waiting ambulance . `` The Ventura County sheriff 's helicopter was able to break through the weather system , and has successfully hoisted all four of them out , '' Mike Parker , a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff 's Department , told CNN 's `` New Day Sunday . '' `` It was a very very risky rescue . It was quite a remote area . There 's absolutely no lighting there at all . The only lighting that we had was our rescuers with flashlights on their helmets and the ones that they were holding , '' Parker said . `` In the pitch black , it 's pretty difficult to find them . The creek was swollen and rising , and we were very concerned that they would be drowned where they were . '' The rescue happened around 3 a.m. ( 6 a.m . ET ) . Rising water , slippery surfaces and the sheer rock walls of the gorge made matters difficult , Parker had said earlier . Before the decisive helicopter navigated through the skies , rescuers in rafts had been `` inching '' across Malibu Creek in a `` high risk '' attempt to reach the four , Parker said . Earlier in the morning , the batteries in the hikers ' cell phone had died , but they were able to communicate that they saw the beams from the rescuers ' flashlights , even though the rescuers could not see the hikers . About an hour before the rescue , the Malibu Search and Rescue helicopter made it through the foul weather that had delayed it and `` immediately spotted '' the hikers . They were about 200 yards upstream from the rescue team , Parker tweeted . In messages sent before their cell phone batteries died , the hikers said they were cold but not injured , Parker said . Temperatures overnight in the Malibu Creek Gorge were in the mid-40s , and rescuers were concerned that hypothermia might become an issue for the hikers , Parker tweeted . The hikers , from Long Beach , were believed to be in their mid-20s , Parker tweeted . 106 million in path of latest winter blast . Mandatory evacuation orders . Severe rain that soaked much of southern California has subsided in many Los Angeles suburbs , though residents of at least two communities remained under mandatory evacuation orders . Authorities lifted a mandatory evacuation order for Monrovia early Sunday , but others remained in effect for Glendora and Azusa , CNN affiliate KTLA reported . So far , no deaths have been reported as a result of the rain . `` We 've got people still evacuated only because we expect those thunderstorms , those high-intensity , short duration type of rainstorms , '' Glendora Police Chief Timothy Staab told CNN affiliate KCAL Saturday night . `` The hillsides are already soaked right now , and it may not take much to cause those mudslides to just come down out of the hills . '' The hills ca n't absorb water because so much vegetation was destroyed in wildfires and drought . Walls of water have gushed into valleys below . They have spewed mud and debris into quiet residential streets , turning them into thick , brown creeks . `` These areas have the highest risk of being impacted by flooding/debris flows from rainfall due to the loss of vegetation from the foothills , '' the city of Glendora said in a statement to KABC , also a CNN affiliate . Little drought relief despite downpour . The storms brought the first rains since the collapse of a powerful , persistent weather system that was keeping California parched , but they wo n't do much to alleviate the drought , according to the CNN Weather Center . A lot of the water is flowing out to sea , and the drought 's effects have been enormous . Water reservoirs are running at minimum levels . CNN 's Greg Morrison and Ben Brumfield contributed to this report .
Hikers rescued from swollen creek in Southern California . (CNN) -- Severe weather had thwarted rescuers since 6:30 p.m. Saturday . Hikers say they 're not hurt , but rescuers worry about hypothermia .