I believe a belt fell off my car, making the steering extremely difficult, and also causing my red generator light to blink on and off. Can I still drive the car short distances without hurting the engine, or should I tow it?

I believe your steering wheel is coming off take vehicle to dealership asap and don't drive. A screw or something fell out

I think that the hard steering and the charge light is telling you that the drive belt is missing or is badly need of replacing as the common unit to both your problems is the drive belt.

Sounds like your serpentine belt broke, if you look under the hood and it broke it won't be there,it runs the alternator pulley (battery light), power steering pump pulley (difficult steering), a/c compressor pulley, it is driven by the crankshaft pulley and around a tensioner pulley. You can pick one up anywhere for around 20 bucks and all you need to install it is a I believe a 14mm or 15mm socket or wrench to move the tensioner, the belt routing is usually pictured under the hood somewhere.

sounds like belt came off

Open the hood and look at your engine for a Serpetine belt. If the belt broke and fell off you would have no power steering, no water pump for cooling and no Alternator for charging the Battery.

very possible that the pump has failed (seized ) internally so get it checked out at an accredited power steering specialist shop
if it does not produce pressure then the steering will lock or be extremely heavy to turn

It sounds like your serpentine belt broke. Look under the hood and see if you see pulleys without a drive belt (on the front of the engine). Replace the belt if necessary.

you have a belt for the power steering, check to see if belt broke and fell off ,if belt is still on, check fluid in power steering , pump might have gone out also, if full of fluid and belt is on, pump or rack is gone, hope this helped,thanks robert b.

check alt might be bad take belt off and spin the alt pulley. If its hard to spin bad . belt slipping causing power stearing pump not to spin.

D flashing on the dash means that there is a problem or code in your tranmission. Red battery light means there is a problem with you charging system most likeley bad alternator or maybe even a missing alternator belt check belt first and if the belt is in place ther is a problem withyour charging system. You can go to any auto place like Auto zone that check charging systems for free and have it checked or you can have it checked at your local repair shop. More than like the alternator is bad. HOWEVER SOMETIME IF YOU HAVE A BAD ALTERNATOR YOU CAN GET ALL THE PROBLEMS YOU STATED EXCEPT THE STEERING ONE. If your belt is missing power steering would be very difficult to turn. Good Luck get back to me if you need more help and leave me a fix ya if I did fixya.