Sandy's wind field (in orange) was much larger than Joaquin's is today

In addition, storm surge did most of the damage with Sandy, while Joaquin's threat appears to be from heavy rain and floods, especially in the Southeast. Sandy pushed huge mounds of sea water onto the mid-Atlantic and Northeast coastlines, doing colossal damage to homes and property.

Torrential rain — fueled in part by tropical moisture from Joaquin — will fall over a much larger area and population than Sandy did, according to the Weather Channel. Catastrophic flooding is possible in the Carolinas and Virginia this weekend, AccuWeather reported.

One similarity between the two storms seems to be a more accurate forecast from the European computer model, one of many meteorologists use to forecast the weather. In both storms, the European computer model did a better job of forecasting the actual track of the storm than did the top American model.