Why did the mother...?

Which is pretty much the same reason she does everything in the movie...

-Leave the safety of her home with her 3 daughters even though every news source is saying to prepare for the massive storm coming.

-After being warned by the deputy about how stupid she's being for driving around at that time, she gets back in her car and continues driving, instead of trying to find a place to stay during the storm.

-When she sees a tornado behind her, she finally realizes the storm might be dangerous. She pulls off the road and tells her girls to get out and run to the nearest house, instead of saving precious time by driving up to the house

-She finds a hidden hallway behind a bookcase, somehow, and decides to investigate on her own. Her oldest daughter says she's not letting her go in alone, so she says they all go or they all stay... Then later she leaves her two younger daughters alone anyway. (If only her oldest daughter was more persuasive when she was telling her mom that they shouldn't be going on a road trip during the storm of the century.)

-She accepts that they're all dead, and is willing to let her two other daughters die along with her until her oldest daughter knocks some sense into her and finally gets her to help.

-She stands a few feet away from the still she blows up, directly in the area the explosion is focused, instead of A) standing back further, or B) standing against the wall and tossing the flaming bottle into the entrance so the full force of the blast wouldn't be aimed at her.


With her ridiculously terrible judgment, it's amazing her daughters even made it this far in life. Unless she's had many more children, and these 3 are the only ones who managed to survive. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason she stopped drinking was because she got behind the wheel drunk and killed one or more of her other children.