I remember reading somewhere that when the bubonic plague spread through Europe at the end of the middle ages the extreme high mortality rate (up to 50%)in some areas), actually precipitated social and cultural changes that helped put an end to the Dark Ages and start the Renaissance.

The culture was turned upside down, and the deaths of so many, particularly in the densely populated towns, broke the stranglehold on commerce and land ownership held by the old aristocracy. The result was an explosion of growth in the merchant and craftsmen clases, and a wealth of new economic opportunities. For one thing, a lot of property was just left unnattended, and new owners simply took possession.

It's difficult to tell, and impossible to prove, whether such speculations are true or false, or something in between. But there was a shortage of people and a surplus of capital, a situation not often experienced in normal times.

Don't think of it as a catastrophe, think of it as an opportunity.