SALEM, Ind. (AP) _ Federal officials have awarded a southern Indiana school district $1.6 million to build a tornado safe-room at an elementary school.

The grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will allow Salem Community Schools to add the safe-room at Bradie Shrum Elementary School to protect students and staff from tornadoes and severe storms. The school is in Salem about 30 miles northwest of Louisville, Kentucky.

Salem Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Lynn Reed says southern Indiana is prone to tornadoes and she has a personal connection to the deadly March 2012 tornado that hit nearby Henryville.

She says the tornado safe-room “will not only provide a safer environment for students'' but will also “help spread awareness for the destructive power of tornadoes and other severe weather.''