How did investors and landlords survive the downturn in 08/09?

[Mihir Bhimaraju]

This question lingers in my mind and I'd love to hear from investors/ landlords who survived the 08/09 market downturn. I invest in my backyard and it hasn't taken as big a hit as other coastal cities did. But I've heard investors mention losing millions of net worth overnight (even the ones who bought at 70% ARV) just because the property comps dropped instantly and they were over-leveraged and were underwater on mortgages.

But I haven't heard much about whether the rents and cash flow helped them ride it out until things got better or did their rentals go vacant because people were losing jobs? Even the folks who get fired must need a place, right? 

When there's a downturn in the market and values go down, are buy and hold folks, BRRR folks screwed?

Any thoughts from folks who went  through this experience?