Does the serpentine belt breaking cause an alternator to go bad or vice versa?

Just the other week I had the power steering pump and serpentine belt replaced on my '96 Ford Taurus; since then my car started making some grinding noises particularly when I was idle (The car drove completely ok with the exception of the noise) -- After doing some research on the net I found that its a good possibility that the alternator's bearrings went bad. Do you think this caused my serpentine belt to break the other week? Or do you think that the serpentine belt breaking caused the alternator to go bad?

A belt breaking does not cause an alternator's bearings to wear.

Hi and here is some information you can use.
If the alternator bearing is going bad, it can seize up and break the belt. When replacing the belt, you need to spin the other pulleys and see if it spins freely. If it spins ruff and stops it is poss able that that pulley has a bad bearing.

Here is something else to consider. Since the serpentine belt is the only belt it must spin true. Once you said you had a power steering pump installed if it was not put ON properly it will put the belt into a bind and can put to much tension on other pulleys including the alt.
Since you didn't say that this noise was there after the pump was installed it is poss able that the belt did not track true and caused the belt to break.

Hope this helps and thanks for your question