This is the 10406th most frequent Swedish word.
katastrofen
"Katastrofen" means "the catastrophe" in English.
Here, "katastrofen" is used as a subject to denote a specific disastrous event that took place.
Katastrofen inträffade mitt i natten.
The disaster occurred in the middle of the night.
In this sentence, "katastrofen" functions as an object, referring to a hypothetical disaster that was averted.
Vi undvek katastrofen tack vare deras snabba agerande.
We avoided the disaster thanks to their quick actions.
"Katastrofen" here is part of a prepositional phrase indicating the time context following the disaster.