Poor mom! Yet it's better to be safe than sorry.
I have a friend who lives on a sailboat and they take hurricane forecasts very seriously! They really tie the boat down in a small cove when they hear something might approach and while other sailors might laugh, it's saved everything a few times while others wished they hadn't laughed.
Better safe than sorry only goes so far. When people get hyped into a frenzy of fear of what might be coming things do get out of hand.
Back when Superstorm Sandy (or whatever it ended up being called) did her thing I was in central PA. I went to the local store to make sure we had a few basic supplies in case we lost power, but there was no point really stocking up because we were leaving the country a week or so later. Many of the shelves were picked bare, so we just had a few batteries for a light, a corded phone so we could make calls (in case we lost power but not phone cables) and some convenience food in case we couldn't cook. Plenty of the Amish didn't know the scale of what was supposed to be coming. Then Sandy blew through and it was a bit wet and windy outside but had it not been for the media hype I wouldn't have thought it was the storm that was supposed to cause carnage. From the weather maps it blew within about 50 miles of us.
Preparation is good but there comes a point when it gets silly.