Relatives Wait As Bridge Search Continues

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.

Some of their relatives can barely contemplate life without a loved one, said volunteer Allan Brankline. They stare at photographs while waiting for new information as divers dodge hazards, methodically searching the river.

In one frightening moment, one of the divers became entangled in a crushed car on the river's bottom. Other divers were able to free him, but were unable to recover any of the missing victims of the collapse, reports CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano.

"They are asking themselves, 'When is the last time I spoke with them? What is the last thing I said?'" said Brankline, a mental health specialist and certified social worker from Rochester.

In four seconds, lives changed. People who were strangers are now embracing, Brankline said. Long-estranged relatives are speaking.

The families on campus wait in a room with no TVs but plenty of toys and stuffed animals for the children. Those who want to see the images on screen wander into other rooms.

"The first day, the families really sat amongst themselves. But as time's gone on, those boundaries are evaporating because they're all experiencing this together," Tschida said.

"I've heard laughter, some applause, even some celebration. They're celebrating the lives of their loved ones," she said.

Late in the drizzly afternoon, nearly 40 relatives boarded buses for a police escort to the nearby 10th Avenue bridge, where they peered over the edge and into the wreckage below. Most stood silently for several minutes before reboarding and returning to Augsburg.

"We wanted them to be able to get there, have an opportunity to say prayers," said Minneapolis Police Capt. Mike Martin.

Authorities confirmed late Saturday night that eight were missing, including 21-year-old Richard Chit and his mother, Vera Peck, and a 29-year-old Capella University employee, Scott Sathers of Maple Grove.

Dorothy Svendsen, mother of missing 45-year-old construction worker Greg Jolstad, has been waiting at home in Hinckley while daughter-in-law Lisa Jolstad travels between home in Mora and the Red Cross centers.

Greg Jolstad had been operating a compact loader as part of an 18-man crew pouring new concrete on the bridge deck, but he never feared for his safety, even when working high above water.

"I think he just thought it was part of his job, a hazard, just one of the things you have to deal with," his mother said.

Now, all the family can do is wait for Jolstad to be found.

"We have a support group of friends and family, and that helps a lot," Svendsen said. "It's awful, but I don't think anybody has any information."

Mohamed Sahal's entire family vanished when the bridge fell — his daughter Hanah, 2, and his 23-year-old wife Sadiya, five months pregnant.

The nursing student had been on her way to pick up a friend who needed a ride home from work when she got snarled in barely moving traffic. She called home about a half-hour before the bridge collapsed to say that the traffic was bad, but that she'd be home soon.

Sahal is so devastated he can barely speak, relying on an activist in the Somali immigrant community for periodic updates from the police.

"He's with family in an apartment," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center. "He's just praying a lot."

Andrew Baker, chief medical examiner for Hennepin County, said the families he has met have been forming friendships likely to last a lifetime.

"These are people that 48 hours ago never would have crossed paths in the whole world, and here they are coming together. ... It's just amazing," he said.

"We have families to go home to tonight. Some of them don't. And I don't even know if there's a word you can use to describe that feeling."