He and wife SoHee Youn were caught up in the snowstorm that shut down the east coast of America on January 22, 2016.

The couple are currently putting the finishing touches on a musical they have written.

What is it like being at the mercy of the elements in 'the city that never sleeps'?

New York is such a man-made environment it's easy to feel nature is 'somewhere out there'.

This blizzard was humbling in that sense - the city sent out an emergency tweet at midday ordering all non-essential traffic off the streets by 2.30pm.

The subways, rail lines and airports all closed, giving everyone no option really but to scamper home and watch it all unfold from the window.

There was a great NY Times article describing how these kind of events give harried New Yorkers a rare time out - the article was headlined, 'In case of blizzard, do nothing.'

Everybody had an excuse to not be a New Yorker for two days - to just let nature do its thing.

What did you do to prepare?

"Absolutely nothing. We live in a neighbourhood with 24-hour delis and diners on most corners, so we just assumed it was very unlikely we'd starve, provided we could brave the elements to the end of the block.

In true NY fashion, there were still intrepid delivery guys bringing take out orders to apartment buildings at the height of the storm - on pushbikes, mind you!"

How was this blizzard different from others in the past?

We were walking home from our gym 10 blocks away as the storm began to hit, and I've never experienced true 'white-out' conditions.

The wind was whipping snow into our faces, swirling in many directions, and it became almost impossible to keep our eyes open.

Familiar landmarks like the Empire State Building, though only eight blocks away, completely disappeared in great curtains of swirling snow.

I actually became fearful for a moment as we were walking along the road, as the sidewalk was knee-deep in snow and the road had been cleared - the traffic, however, couldn't see us until quite close and some cars were sliding all over the place.

It's the most intense snowstorm I've witnessed and I hear it dumped the second-highest level of snow in the city's history.

What were your concerns about the conditions - either for yourself or for others?

Most of our friends were well-prepared and safely indoors, but we were worried about a homeless guy who always sleeps under a bridge we pass under on our way to the gym. Thankfully he found a shelter to stay in - but I'm sure some homeless people had a very hard time of it.

How long were you holed up and how did you spend your time?

We stayed indoors for a night and a day. Hardly Noah's Ark stuff, but it was actually quite a nice feeling to be safe indoors in a toasty apartment with a hot mocha watching the magnificence of Mother Nature shutting down this great city.

We also used the time to get some writing done. I must say, though, to those who claim a blizzard like this disproves climate change - on Christmas Day in NY a month ago it was 73 degrees F (22 degree C), the same temperature it was in Sydney. Instead of the customary minks on 5th Avenue, there were t-shirts and shorts.It's actually been an unusually mild winter in New York.

The snow made me hanker for the real winters I remember getting when I first arrived here 17 years ago.