A bit of sewer line excitement

Since we bought this house, I have been impressed with how dry the basement was (in fact, I've been bragging about it).  So dry it was that I had done 3 things that some folks questioned:
- I had the home-made plywood hatch door over the basement steps removed and added a floor drain at the bottom of the steps (to catch what rain might come down them),
- let the neighbor hook up his downspout to ours (which ran into our basement as it appeared to have been originally but had been separated before I bought the house),  and
 -replaced the ratty old basement wood door with a brand new custom-sized one.

Given that in Pittsburgh, this has been the year of the Spring monsoon and the torrential rains, I expected some water to come in the basement.  But, I didn't expect it to come bubbling UP out of the new basement entry drain!  The plumber assured me that it was one of two things:  either there was a clog in the sewer line or combining two downspouts was too much water for the lines to handle.

My worst fears kept running through my head:  there's a break in the sewer line out in the street and it's going to cost $10,000 to repair!!!  So, we paid to run a camera through and "fortunately" found a huge clog halfway through the basement.  The plumbers broke up the floor, replaced the clogged portion of pipe and found the rest to be clear to the street.  What a mess  but what a relief!  (though, i'm still waiting for the plumber's bill for this extra...)

Unfortunately, the next torrential rain came along, and more water came up out of the drain at the bottom of the basement steps and into the basement.  So, now the neighbor is going to disconnect his downspout and we'll wait for the next big rain.  Let's keep our finger crossed...  if that doesn't do the trick, we'll have to put our thinking caps on and come up with a solution  (stay tuned)...