A 76-year-old Brooklyn woman became the first known NYC fatality tied to the powerful nor’easter that battered the region when she was struck in the head and killed by a solar panel that blew off a carport at an outdoor parking lot, police and the city Buildings Department said.
The freak accident – attributed to the powerful nor’easter winds – happened about 10:30 a.m. Sunday near Ocean Parkway and Brighton Beach Ave., not far from the beaches along southern Brooklyn, as Lyudmila Braun as walking down the street.
“She was my wife,” a distraught Mark Braun told the Daily News Monday. “We were married [for] more than 50 years. 52 years.
”“I am not doing well.”
Rose Abuin / New York Daily News
A 76-year-old Brooklyn woman died after she was struck in the head by a solar panel that blew off a carport at an outdoor parking lot on Ocean Parkway and Brighton Beach Ave. in Brooklyn Sunday morning. (Rose Abuin / New York Daily News)
Police said a solar panel 3 feet 5 inches wide and 7 feet 3 inches long blew loose from a steel carport structure, flew 20 feet in the air and hit the victim in her head.
The victim, knocked to the ground by the impact, was rushed by medics to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where she was pronounced dead at 11:09 a.m.
The Buildings Department said it issued a partial vacate order to the company listed in city finance records as the owner of the parking lot, which it identified as Trump Village Apartments Two Owner LLC. The city told the company to clear the lot south of the carport.
The company did not return a request for comment Monday.
Trump Village was opened in 1964 by President-elect Trump’s father, real estate developer Fred Trump. It was not immediately clear if the Trump organization still had any connection to the property.
The nearest entrance to the Q train subway station was also closed Sunday and remained closed Monday, though straphangers could still use other entrances.
Originally Published: October 13, 2025 at 1:19 PM EDT