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Coping with the coronavirus depends on an individual’s past experience with crises and disasters, but there is a major difference. Michael White, Xavier University professor and jazz clarinetist, told The New Orleans Advocate he thought Hurricane Katrina would be the worst disaster he would see in his lifetime, but the coronavirus pandemic seems like the “Twilight Zone.”

“The Twilight Zone” was a television show (1959-1964) described as a strange mix of horror, science fiction, drama, comedy and superstition.

Keith Spera, writer of the newspaper story, said the coronavirus is a “silent and largely unseen havoc contrasting with the obscene physical toll of the storm.” He said the pandemic isn’t illustrated by dramatic images of water rescues, citizens stranded on rooftops, houses torn from their foundations or high-rise hotels with shattered windows.

White said, “When you go outside, it’s empty like Katrina, but you don’t see the destruction, you don’t smell that smell, you don’t feel that dead stillness, that absence of rhythm and music. With Katrina, you knew what happened, good, bad and ugly. With this, we don’t know how it’s going to end.”

Spera said unlike Katrina, you can’t attack the pandemic physically. There is no mess to clean up, he said, and no flooded homes to muck out. Residents could escape the storm by going some place that was unaffected by the storm, but this time there is no escape.

The newspaper asked Kate Yurgil, a Loyola University assistant professor of psychology, whether prior experience with a traumatic event would or wouldn’t be an advantage. She said some research suggests that exposure to prior events may or may not be an advantage this time around.

Susan Spicer, a chef and restaurant owner, had her home flooded in Katrina and she worked from Jackson, Miss., to remediate, repair and reopen her restaurants.

“You knew it (Katrina) would be a while, but you had an idea of how soon you could get back to it,” Spicer said. “Now, 50 percent of the people you know may get sick. It’s like, ‘Who’s next?’ ”

Yurgil said she is encouraged by research showing that the “most common trajectory following a disaster is one of resilience. It’s important to remember that coming out on the other side, most of us will find a new normal. Most of us will be okay.”

We certainly hope so, but some research says there is more stress because there is a lack of clarity about the virus and its timeline and we don’t know when we can return to normal.