Not that I agree with the decision, but isn't running the movie not much different than years past when they'd run their other primetime shows during severe weather events? Albeit those didn't take up 4-5 hours of time. I can't remember all the instances where this happened, but my earliest recollection was November 10, 2002 when they were running "Atmospheres" at 5, 8 and 11 PM on the weekends (in reruns, the show was out of production). There was quite a tornado outbreak that day and TWC did not preempt that show on that Sunday afternoon and evening. I remember complaints about that being deleted on the old weather.com message boards.
By the way, they were using the dual-feed here in Cincinnati last night.