What would you do when the belt breaks?

[Legolas894]

Lovely day, sun shining, going down a back road at 50MPH, windows rolled down and AM radio shrieking. Then a thump noise and the generator light comes on. Pull over and no alternator belt to be seen. I thought, oh well, I can run off the battery till I get home (about 15 minutes longer). My truck is manual everything so no other belts off the main pulley. After about 5 minutes, it hits me that I also don't have a water pump working now. I pull in to a hardware store and look for a furnace fan v-belt. Went through a couple and 4L-430 seems to fit snug enough.

My question is, how long can you go without a water pump turning? Did I damage the engine going for 5 minutes without any water pumping? Air flow would have only been during motion and I didn't stop for too long with the engine running. Should you just park it and call AAA?