Ninth victim recovered in bridge collapse

MINNEAPOLIS - Divers found another body in the Mississippi River yesterday, 11 days after a highway bridge collapsed into the fast-flowing water, raising the official death toll to nine.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office identified the body as that of Richard Chit, 20, of St. Anthony. His mother, 50-year-old Vera Peck of Bloomington, is still missing.

Navy divers had been out of the water overnight after a thunderstorm forced them to quit about two hours early on Saturday, Navy spokesman Dave Nagle said. Storms made their task more dangerous over the weekend, strengthening river currents on Saturday after an overnight storm dropped as much as 2 inches of rain on the region.

As divers resumed their search, a crane removed a school bus and other vehicles from one end of the ruined span.

The yellow school bus became a symbol of a disaster that could have been worse. Everyone on board - 52 children and several adults - escaped alive.

One of the bus survivors, Julie Graves, was accompanying children from a neighborhood center in Minneapolis on a trip to a water park the day the bridge collapsed.

Yesterday, her feet were in casts, and tight wraps on her arms locked her elbows. She has been in a back brace after surgery to repair two broken lumbar vertebrae last week but is expected to make a full recovery.

"I'm doing good," Graves said by phone Sunday from Hennepin County Medical Center. "Some pain here and there definitely. But I'm so grateful to be alive."

Most vehicles on the bridge's north end were gone. Kevin Gutknecht of the state transportation department said work would focus on the south end for the next day or two.