Bridge search goes on as more clues emerge

MINNEAPOLIS — Teams of divers Friday located more vehicles that plunged into the Mississippi River during the collapse of an interstate highway bridge Wednesday night but failed to find bodies in them, authorities said.

As the treacherous recovery effort continued for a second full day, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported a curious finding from its nascent investigation: The southern part of the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed in a different way from the rest of the span, shifting about 50 feet to the east as it fell, while the rest of the bridge collapsed in place.

Officials declined to speculate on what the anomaly meant, saying it needs to be studied thoroughly.

Feeling their way in murky waters with barely six inches of visibility, divers found five submerged vehicles Friday morning upstream from the collapsed bridge, Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek said.

Divers searched four vehicles, finding no victims, but were unable to examine a car on the bottom of the river, crushed underneath another vehicle, Stanek said.

The confirmed death toll from the disaster stood at five Friday, including a man whose body was pulled from a burned truck on the collapsed bridge late Thursday.

Three other victims died at the disaster site Wednesday when the bridge collapsed suddenly during the evening rush hour, falling 64 feet to the river.

One victim who was pulled from the wreckage died of his injuries in an area hospital, Medical Examiner Andrew Baker said.

The number of people missing in the disaster remained uncertain Friday. Police initially gave an estimate of 20 to 30, but some officials said Thursday night that they could confirm only eight people missing. Stanek declined to give a figure Friday.

"We don't know," he said. "It's a terrible mess, quite honestly. We don't know how many cars were on the bridge when it collapsed, and we don't know how many victims were in the cars."

He said one woman who previously had been listed as unaccounted for was found at work Friday morning. Her car had been recovered at the disaster scene, but her whereabouts were unknown until detectives located her at her job site.

Minneapolis Police Chief Timothy Dolan later said only that "several people" were missing.

"It could be more than eight; it could be less than eight," he said. He said 50 to 60 vehicles were on the bridge when it collapsed, about 30 of which were still visible on the fallen slabs of concrete or in the wreckage.

Divers had located 12 vehicles in the water, Stanek said.

Meanwhile, NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker said investigators were focusing on the southern end of the 1,907-foot-long steel truss bridge, which opened to traffic in 1967. A security camera that captured the collapse showed that the southern section "seemed to behave differently in the video and in the final way that it sat after the collapse," he said.

"It appears that it shifted approximately 50 feet to the east," Rosenker said, while "the rest of the bridge appears to have collapsed in place." He said investigators would analyze design factors that could account for such a shift. He said they believe the shift occurred as the bridge was falling, not that it caused the collapse.

In Washington, D.C., the House and Senate voted Friday to direct $250 million to rebuild the bridge.

Another vote in the House will be needed today after the Senate amended the measure to switch the source for some of the money. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said the "technical amendment" could end up adding $5 million to the package.

The bill would allow for some of the money to be used to reimburse Minnesota for additional public-transportation costs incurred as a result of the bridge's collapse.

In a visit to the disaster scene Friday, first lady Laura Bush found the destruction difficult to grasp.

"Unbelievable," she murmured as Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Rob Allen showed her the site from a hill beside the collapsed bridge.

President Bush is scheduled to visit the scene today.

Congressional action was reported by The Associated Press.