I'm in Texas, but I have lots of friends and family in both NYC and New Orleans.

In terms of coverage, post-storm, I think Katrina was the bigger story.

With Sandy, the networks broadcast their regular programs during prime time both that night (Monday) and the next. The cable news channels have been mostly on that story, but (perhaps due to the election next week) are already covering some other stories intermittently. And I think that's about right. The death toll was in the dozens; people right by the shore and on barrier islands have lost homes, for everyone else affected, it's a lot of inconvenience and unpleasantness living w/o power & water, but in a couple of weeks, life will have returned to normal.

With Katrina, the death toll was in the thousands. A major US city (500K+) was evacuated. And the ongoing horrific images from the Superdome and Convention Center, people dying in the streets, kept coming, as it took 4 days before the government was able to get those who had stayed evacuated. If I recall correctly, the networks had 24x7 coverage for 4 days.