Relatives Wait As Bridge Search Continues

Police Name 8 Still Missing At Site Of Collapsed Bridge But Caution The Number Could Still Rise

(CBS/AP)  Increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of recovery efforts, families of the missing in the Interstate 35W bridge collapse seemed heartened by a brief visit to the disaster site late Saturday.

They also saw why it has been so hard for search crews to find bodies amid the fallen ruins of the eight-lane bridge, a Red Cross official said.

After the visit, "they had a better depth of understanding of ... the challenges that the rescuers are facing now that they've seen it first hand," said Melanie Tschida, a Red Cross spokeswoman.

"That has been one of the ongoing frustrations all along — the lack of information and just the kind of endless wait of getting answers," she said.

The families were bused to the scene as divers were wrapping up a third fruitless day of searching for missing victims, finding no bodies inside a crushed car pulled from the bottom of the Mississippi River.

The search was to resume Sunday.

An interfaith service with songs and prayers for the victims of Wednesday's bridge collapse was set for 7 p.m. Sunday. Money raised will be distributed to victims' families.

The official death toll stands at five.

Police late Saturday released an official list eight people still missing, matching estimates that had been lowered from the hours immediately after the tragedy.

But police also cautioned that the number could still rise because it's possible some victims have not been reported missing. Investigators have names that haven't been connected to the bridge, and divers and recovery workers have found license plate numbers that don't belong to an identified missing person or survivor.

Among the newest names added to the list were Vera Peck and her son, Richard Chit, who were in the same car.

Family members said Richard Chit had Down syndrome, making him virtually inseparable from his mother.

"One of them wouldn't survive without the other so maybe that's just the way it's supposed to be," sister Caroline Chit told MSNBC through tears.

She and her sister said that Richard was 20 and about to turn 21. Authorities listed his age as 21.

The other six are Scott Sathers, 29, who worked at Cappela University, an online school; Christine Sacorafas, 45, a recent transplant to Minnesota who taught Greek folk dancing class; Greg Jolstad, 45, a construction worker who was operating a skid loader on the bridge; Peter Hausmann, 47, a computer security specialist; and Somali immigrant Sadiya Sahal, 23, a pregnant nursing student, and her 2-year-old daughter, Hanah.

Of the roughly 100 injured in the collapse, 24 remained hospitalized Saturday, five in critical condition.

Divers found no bodes inside a crushed car pulled earlier Saturday from the murky Mississippi River waters. They were unable to check at least one other car lying beneath another vehicle on the river bottom

Mohamed Sahal is in seclusion, praying through tears for his missing pregnant wife and 2-year-old daughter.

The teenage stepchildren of a red-haired construction worker called "Jolly" are huddled at home, thinking about the man who helped raise them and imagining the horror he must have experienced as he plunged into the river.

And nearly 50 others gathered Saturday in a stark white classroom at Augsburg College — strangers bound forever by the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge and the torturous wait for confirmation of what their hearts already know.

"Every time a cell phone rings or an officer calls, they think it's for them," said Melanie Tschida of the Red Cross.

At least five people were killed and about 100 injured when concrete and steel abruptly gave way in rush-hour traffic Wednesday, sending dozens of vehicles and tons of debris into the Mississippi River. Authorities believe eight people are missing.

[jack773]

Good quote samrensho! My favorite is "life is tough - but it's a lot tougher if you're stupid," by John Wayne.

[twixcon]

It's funny that Minnesota seems to have had plenty of money to build an unneeded baseball stadium for a do-nothing team that should have been contracted a few years ago. They have money to build the Exel center in St Paul after already having failed with their prior NHL team, the Northstars. And yet they dont have the money to properly repair their highways and bridges.

Then they turn and blame their lack of financial discipline on the Federal government..just like those other BLUE states, CA an LA where people build cities below sea level and houses on mud cliffs and in fire zones then expect the taxpayers to bail them out. BLUE = stupid. Enough of this victim mentality fostered by democrats everywhere.

[Netterz]

But that comment has no bearing on what I feel for the loss the families are feeling, I can not even begin to fathom what went thru those peoples minds, not to metion what there familes are feeling and the anger they must feel that our gov't has allowed these bridges to go so far in disrepair. It is disgusting, and should have NEVER happened. Time to start taking care of AMERICA....and our own.

[Netterz]

I dont think it matters which 'party' you vote for, all have been raised with the golden bottle in there mouth, and then tossed the golden rope as they grew up. They dont care about the average joe, working class people anymore. We need some one who has worked for a living, who knows the struggles, and hardships, that hasnt made the Fortune 500 list, to get in there and make MAJOR change. Get rid of all the ones that have been sucking us dry all there lives, and get this country back to what it should be. Close the borders, cut off the billions going over seas to countries that hate us anyways, political correct BS, if some one wants to live here, they live by OUR laws and rules, if they dont like it, move back to where they ran from, if they want things to be there way. I am sick and tired of my hard earned $ being given away, while I watch MY family go without, and struggle between there home, there well being, and ability to EAT, while illegals walk in are handed a new life, with everything my family is going with out, then complain about MY way of life, and want new laws made to make there lives even easier. I refuse to change my way of life, the things I was born and raised to RESPECT and HONOR be taken away from me.

[samrensho]

You can't depend on the man who made the mess to clean it up.
-- Richard Nixon, 1952

[bluestardad]

AMERICA SCHOOL KIDS ARE HAVING BAKE SALES AND CAR WASHES FOR SCHOOL SUPPLIES!

AMERICAN JOBS ARE GOING OVERSEAS!

AMERICAN INFRASTRUCTURE IS CRUMBLING!

YET WE SEND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO ISRAEL, SAUDIA ARABIA, PALESTINIANS, AND THE MIDDLE EAST!

IRAQ OIL PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION DOES NOT HAVE METERS ON THEIR PIPELINES AND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF OIL IS BEING SOLD ON THE BLACK MARKET WHILE IRAQI PEOPLE CAN NOT HAVE ELECTRICITY OR CLEAN WATER.

BUT THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX IS BOOMING!
HALIBURTON STOCK IS UP!
OIL COMPANIES ARE SHOWING RECORD PROFETS!

STAY THE COURSE VOTE REPUBLICAN IF YOU LIKE HOW THINGS ARE GOING!