Associated Press/ Morry Gash

An aerial view of a Coast Guard boat shows it standing by at the scene of the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Divers from the Coast Guard and local law enforcement searched the Mississippi River under the bridge on Friday. Plans are to continue the exploration today.

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MINNEAPOLIS — A marketing director. An exercise therapist. A produce salesman. A cosmetology student. A truck driver.

Their careers brought them to the city. The Interstate 35W bridge was supposed to carry them home. But the five people killed when the bridge dropped into the Mississippi River were stuck in rush-hour traffic at the worst possible place at the worst possible time.

Patrick Holmes, 36, had crossed the bridge thousands of times in the five years he'd worked as an exercise therapist in Bloomington. He was headed home to pick up his 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter from a friend who watched them while his wife, Jennifer, played golf.

She can't fathom why this time, it collapsed underneath him, sending vehicles into the water, crushing many under concrete and steel.

"How can you know why?" she wondered. "We don't have control over what happens."

Salesman Artemio Trinidad-Mena, 29, was returning to his 2-month-old daughter and wife Abundia Martinez after a day of meeting with the clients of New York Plaza Produce. The illegal immigrant's wages helped support three other children, ages 2-11, in their home state of Guerrero, Mexico.

"He was the best man I'd ever met, a friendly guy, a happy guy. If you ever had a problem, he'd say, `Don't be sad. You have to live a happy life,' " said co-worker Imelda Riera. "He made everyone feel good. He was that kind of person.

"I'd complain about forgetting about my keys or something and having to go home . . . he'd say, `No problem, no problem. I'll go get it for you.' "

A Mexican flag adorned a memorial at his workplace on Friday, where people left white roses and dollars in a donation box. His widow hopes to raise enough money to take his body home to the nation he left a decade ago.

Paul Eickstadt had just begun work that afternoon, delivering fresh bread products from Roseville to the Sara Lee bakery depot in Mason City, Iowa. Eickstadt, 51, of Mounds View, was trapped in his vehicle as it burst into flames, dangling between broken concrete slabs.

He had worked for Sara Lee since 1993, and the company described him as "a reliable employee who always got the job done."

Sherry Engebretsen was one of the motorists who'd been eager to get home. Daughter Anne was leaving for dance camp, and she wanted to say goodbye.

The 60-year-old marketing director was having a bad day, husband Ronald said. Perhaps that's why she skipped her ordinary route to Shoreview, the 10th Avenue bridge, and opted for I-35W.

She spoke to both of her daughters every day, and her last call was to 18-year-old Jessica.

"Nowadays, you hear a lot of stories about parents and kids not getting along," Jessica Engebretsen said. "But we always got along."

Julia Blackhawk, 32, was the divorced mother of 12- and 9-year-old boys, a cosmetology student hoping to launch a long-desired career with her Aveda Institute training. She was driving home from classes when she, too, got stuck on the bridge.

Blackhawk's dark eyes and hair reflected her Winnebago Indian heritage. She was a quiet, elegant woman who had a beautiful laugh, "and when she laughed it made your heart happy," her family said in a statement issued late Friday.

Still missing and presumed dead by her grieving family is Sadiya Sahal, five months pregnant and toting 2-year-old daughter Hanah Mohamed.

Sahal was stuck in traffic. The 23-year-old nursing student was on her way to pick up a friend who needed a ride home from work, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center.

Sahal moved to Minneapolis from Somalia in 2000 and graduated from Washburn High School, Jamal said. She'd been married for just a few years.

In four wrenching seconds, Mohamed Sahal's family vanished.

"He's doing terribly. He's devastated. He's in shock. He can't even talk," Jamal said of the heartbroken mechanic. "He's really in complete disbelief. I don't even have the language to describe it."

In other news today on the bridge collapse:

Barring bad weather, divers planned to resume their search today for cars and bodies in the swirling, muddy currents.

After divers spent Friday searching the waters, the number of dead stood at five, and authorities cast doubt on an earlier estimate that as many as 30 people were missing. They even said it could be as few as eight.

Of the roughly 100 injured in Wednesday's collapse, 28 remain hospitalized and only five were critical.

Minneapolis Fire Chief Jim Clack cited a list of reasons for the smaller number of victims than anticipated: a bridge design that minimized falling debris, a quick response by rescue crews and the rush-hour crawl that kept more vehicles from plunging into the river.

In addition, experts say the speed and depth of the water in the Mississippi River were much lower than normal on the day of the collapse - largely the result of a drought. That may have made it easier for people to escape the disaster.

Minnesota officials say they don't yet know how many cars were traveling the span during the collapse. But judging by the length of road, the lanes that were open, time of day and widely accepted traffic formulas, Northwestern University engineering professor Joseph Schofer estimated that between 100 and 150 vehicles were on the bridge.

Authorities still do not know what caused the 6:05 p.m. collapse. Engineers had theories including heavy traffic and construction work that might have put an undue burden on the span. The bridge was deemed "structurally deficient" by the federal government as far back as 1990.

Minnesota transportation officials spent Thursday and Friday dealing with scrutiny arising from reports and inspections over the years that raised alarm about the bridge, including rust-eaten steel beams, missing bolts and cracks in the welding that held load-bearing parts together.

A consulting company that thoroughly examined the bridge noted that one possible fix - steel plating of fractures - carried a "relatively high cost," according to a January report. Transportation officials deny that cost pressures swayed their decisions.

The House and Senate voted Friday to direct $250 million to rebuild the Minnesota bridge that was destroyed in this week's deadly collapse.

But another vote in the House is needed today after the Senate amended the measure to switch the source for some of the money. Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, said the "technical amendment" could end up adding another $5 million to the package.

The legislation would waive the $100 million federal limit per state for emergency relief funds, authorizing $250 million for rebuilding the bridge. The money itself still needs to be appropriated by Congress in future legislation.

The bill also allows 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. On Thursday, federal officials announced that $5 million would be released to help with efforts such as rerouting traffic around the disaster site.