Christmas mail.

Bermuda's army of postmen fought back the Christmas backlog by shifting 800,000 pieces of mail from the Airport in one day.

More than 400 mail bags -- each including around 2,000 letters and parcels -- were delivered across the Island on Wednesday.

And around half of the huge postal load had arrived in Bermuda on board Tuesday's British Airways flight.

Postmaster General Clevelyn Crichlow said the plane carried almost 200 bags.

And he said postmen had to work in double quick time to clear the load after American post offices sent some Bermuda-bound mail to the UK because of a huge backlog.

Mr. Crichlow said: "Things have been moving at the Airport wonderfully well.

"By Wednesday morning, there was only one container-load left and that was being emptied. The BA flight brought a lot of Bermuda mail from America because of delays in the US but that was cleared OK and now we're totally up to speed.'' He said the 400 bags were delivered to post offices around Bermuda on Tuesday night.

And he added that the mail would be delivered promptly to homes and PO boxes as long as the rain held off.

"The rain has caused a few problems with sorting up at the Airport but nothing we couldn't handle.

"Some letters did get a bit wet and the rain stopped postmen opening the last container in case the mail was flooded.

"The box included 128 bags, mostly full of parcels, and we didn't want them to get soaked.'' He said postmen turned fans on any mail which did get wet.