An early morning water main break at the Valley Mall forced management to close most of the stores Monday. The break also left some Harrisonburg residents without water for hours on a day of record-breaking heat.

Signs were up at every entrance: "The Valley Mall will be closed today due to a break in the water main! We apologize for any inconvenience!"

With no water flow, emergency sprinklers wouldn't be working. Would-be customers, such as Samantha Pence, came to the mall all day looking for relief from the heat.

"I was like, 'Oh,'" says Pence reacting to the closure. "I was like, 'That sucks!'"

"I'm a little upset," says another customer, Michele German. "I was supposed to go get my diamond fixed, again!"

Large stores including Target, JCPenney, and Belk stayed open, but Target warned customers that their bathrooms would be closed.

Managers at Rue 21 also had the option to stay open but decided to close for the day. Managers say if the mall closes, they usually do too.

"The people [scheduled to work] tonight don't get their hours though," says store manager Brittni Grimsley.

Compounding the problem, many people living at the Chestnut Ridge Apartment Complex, including Josh Abshire, woke up to no water.

"We had some bottled water here to fix the [baby] bottles and stuff with," says Abshire. "So, till we figured out what was going on today, we were good to go."

Property managers say they're checking buildings every 30 to 60 minutes in order to ensure that the water problems do not persist.

Back at the mall, Everett Kauffman is a manager at Auntie Anne's, a pretzel store which absolutely depends on water. He didn't know about the water main break until he showed up for work Monday morning. He's staying close by the work site.

"Well, it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour-and-a-half to get the doughs ready," says Kauffman. "So, I need to be back here as soon as the water gets on."

On Monday evening, mall managers said they still did not know why the water main broke. They're also unsure if the mall will open Tuesday.

People affected by the water main break are under a "Boil Water Alert" and should not drink water from the tap without boiling it first. To see what areas are affected and for how long, click on the link below.