Maybe a quick call rather than a text would be more productive for a short notice arrangement? My friends are often slow on texts but immediate on calls, I find.
Presumably you knew something of your friends' plan to move? That doesn't mean you have to like it. Of course not, but it does help to ease the pain methinks.
I always imagine a horrid estimate to come and then reality is sometimes a 'pleasant' shock.
Losing old colleagues is a pain but, in actual fact, a double whammy bonus because, presumably you will continue to meet up in a social context? The added extra is the opportunity to make new friends of the new recruits. All pluses my opinion.