They werent washed away. They would be dead. All four of the campers were two seperate parties ( my cousin and his gf, then there were another couple down there too that they didnt know)
It all occured the afternoon/night of January 26th and all day/evening of the 27th. I had went to DCHS the morning and early afternoon of the 26th (and it was beautiful!), hoping to meet my cousin, who said he was going to meet me down there but he was going to stay over night. I had tried telling him it wasnt a good idea, but he insisted it was okay (of course by the way things turned out...it wasnt.) As I was soaking in the Anniversary Pool in the early afternoon, I saw that there were dark, whispy clouds rolling in from the south...with no sign of my cousin, I left DCHS around 2pm (figuring he bitched out). We must have just missed eachother on the trail (I take the Freedom trail, his car cannot make it to Freedom trail so he used the Bowen Ranch trail.)
He told me it rained very heavily all night long at DCHS, and when he woke, the only pool that wasnt submerged in the flood waters was the Anniversary pool. With no way of getting across the creek and the dangers of possibly trying the Arrowhead trail with no prior experience of hiking it (especially during flash flood weather)...they stayed at DCHS and waited (not knowing search and rescue was coming). Search and rescue came about 8-9 pm on the 27th and hiked all of them out thru the Arrowhead trail. Feel free to ask any questions! Thanks - Mike B