Depending on the type of rain, yes it can go out for a few hours. Especially a heavy, slow moving tropical type rain fall. We get it like that once a year or so here in SE FL but I've never lost signal for more than 30m to an hour. Normally its a few minutes to 20 minutes during really bad storms.
We had a constant deluge here the last month and we lost signal only a couple of times, usually for a minute or two. Once it was for around 15 minutes. We were getting 2+ inches an hour during that rain.
It happens here more than people say from other places of the country. 2 hours should be really really really rare. Not impossible in a slow moving storm but if it happens often then there is likely somethign wrong with your connections getting wet.
In addition, recorded TV should always be available.
Edit
One other thing, Directv's HD goes out before any other provider due to the bands they are using. Lets not kid ourselves.