Heavy rain hampers search for missing

? Divers looking for five people still missing since the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge were hampered Saturday because heavy rain had strengthened the current in the Mississippi River.

Overnight thunderstorms dropped as much as 2 inches of rain on the region, making the river dangerous for divers around the twisted bridge wreckage, a Navy spokesman said.

They were back in the water by 11 a.m., but coordinators had a wary eye on the skies, with more storms possible later in the day.

“If they feel they’re not safe anymore or conditions change, they’ll stop again,” said Randy Mitchell, an Army spokesman working with the Navy team. If conditions hold, he said divers could work as late as 10 p.m.

The delay came after a two-day period in which the military divers recovered three bodies. That brought the confirmed death toll to eight, and reduced the list of known missing to five.

Family and friends gathered Saturday for a double funeral for a mother and daughter killed in the collapse. The bodies of Sadiya Sahal, 23, and 22-month-old Hana, of St. Paul, were among the three recovered Thursday and Friday.

Sadiya Sahal, who was five months pregnant, had her daughter in the back seat of her car as they sat in the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the bridge. She had been on the way to pick up a friend who needed a ride to work.