The Latest Breaking News from Ipswich

Rachael Easter, 33, from Ipswich, says she was at rock bottom when her marriage broke down and she was left in £7,500 debt with no job - but after starting on a debt-free journey, she's made remarkable savings

As the floodwaters rose in Southeast Queensland last week, my phone buzzed with texts from friends. We compared this event with the last catastrophic flood of 2011 and tried to calculate whether our homes would be affected this time. I live in Ipswich, not far from the now-flooded Bremer River.

In the past week parts of south-east Queensland received "scary" amounts of rain, dams from the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast hit capacity, and the region dealt with major flooding.

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Parts of south east Queensland and northern NSW have been experiencing what has been called a “rain bomb”. Despite the heavy falls, south eastern Queenslanders in Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton Bay and the Lockyer Valley have been asked to conserve drinking water.

Flood heights in Queensland's capital are well above the major flood level mark but they have not topped the big downpours of the past.

Thousands of people without power in Queensland could be waiting days to get it restored, as emergency services find the body of a man and a dog in floodwaters on the Gold Coast.

Seventh person dies, with two more missing, and major flood warnings issued for Brisbane, Ipswich, Lismore and Grafton

Eight people have now died, with at least two more missing as major flooding hits Brisbane, Lismore, Murwillumbah and Gympie

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Hundreds of schools will be closed across south-east Queensland on Monday and people have been encouraged to work from home as a deadly weather system continues to lash the state.