As she toured the devastating scene where a Minneapolis bridge collapsed, Laura Bush praised rescuers who rushed over to help people out of the crumbling wreckage.
The U.S. First Lady said Friday people have been encouraged and their spirits lifted after hearing "so many good stories."
U.S. President George Bush is expected to come to town on Saturday to see the aftermath, which killed five people.
Recovery efforts are still underway. At least eight people are still missing.
The bridge collapsed Wednesday during rush hour traffic, sending cars and drivers careening into the Mississippi River along with massive slabs of concrete and metal.
Divers had an easier time scouring the river on Friday as the water level was lowered by two feet and the currents subsided. But visibility was still terrible as officials said divers could see "six inches at best."
Of the 79 people that were injured in the accident, 14 people were still at Hennepin County Medical Center on Friday, where most of the victims were taken. Five of them were still in critical condition on Friday, spokeswoman Kathy Roberts told The Associated Press.
On Friday, emergency workers were again searching for the remaining victims, and there were reports that divers probing the twisted wreckage of metal and concrete had spotted more bodies in the fast-moving, muddy water.
But the number of people thought to be missing and unaccounted for was dramatically reduced from somewhere in the 30s to eight.
Police Chief Tim Dolan says there are cars underneath the tangle of concrete that came down when the bridge collapsed shortly after 6 p.m.
"One of the problems divers are having when they go into the Mississippi is they are running into a lot of jagged debris," CTV's Scott Laurie, reporting from the scene on Friday morning, told Canada AM.
"You have to understand there are cars, trucks, broken glass, girders, everything piled on top of one another and it's making the job of retrieving any people that may be still in the water very difficult for divers."
The fifth victim, the driver of a transport truck that caught fire immediately after the bridge went down, was pulled from the wreckage on Thursday, said fire department spokeswoman Kristi Rollwagen.
Among those thought to have been killed in the accident are a pregnant Somali nursing student and her two-year-old daughter, The Associated Press reports.
The accident has prompted new safety inspections of bridges in the U.S. and Canada.
Minnesota officials were warned as early as 1990 that the bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River on Wednesday was "structurally deficient." But they continued to follow a strategy of patchwork fixes and inspections, raising questions over whether the collapse could have been prevented.
Four lanes were open on the eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge at the time of the collapse, while two pairs of outer lanes had been closed to repairs.
Dozens of cars fell more than 60 feet into the Mississippi. A school bus carrying about 60 children was on part of the collapsed bridge, but the students and driver escaped without serious injuries as the bus sat on the angled concrete.
Divers on Thursday took down the licence plate numbers of submerged vehicles to help authorities track down the vehicles' owners.
The U.S. Homeland Security Department said the collapse didn't appear to be terrorism-related, but the cause was still unknown. Federal officials said US$5 million would be rapidly released to help with efforts such as re-routing traffic around the disaster site.
In 1990, the federal government gave the bridge a rating of "structurally deficient," citing significant corrosion in its bearings.
The rating means portions of the bridge needed to be scheduled for repair or replacement. And it was on a schedule for inspection every two years.
Dorgan said later inspections in the 1990s found fatigue cracks and corrosion in the steel around the bridge's joints. Those problems were repaired. And beginning in 1993, the bridge was inspected annually instead of every other year.
About 77,000 U.S. bridges are rated as "structurally deficient," but aren't necessarily considered unsafe.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty ordered on Thursday an immediate inspection of all bridges in the state with similar designs. But he said the state was never warned that the bridge needed to be closed or immediately repaired.
When still intact, the bridge rose about 20 metres above the river's surface. Between 100,000 and 200,000 vehicles per day are estimated to use the bridge.
With files from The Associated Press
