In his own words: Georgia residents describes fleeing WTC

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Robert Eisenhardt worked as a system administrator in Aon's New York offices at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

"It emotionally hits me every year. I don't think it will but every year it hits me very strongly, " Eisenhardt told FOX 5's Deidra Dukes.

He was in the south tower, on the 74th floor, when a hijacked airliner struck the building.

"I survived this terrible thing. I'm here. Whatever bad happened, I survived."

Eisenhardt was talking to a coworker on the 101st floor of the south tower when the first plane struck the north tower at 8:46 am.

Eisenhardt and his colleagues, unaware it was a terrorist attack, began evacuating down a stairwell.

Many of those same employees would head back upstairs soon after receiving the all clear in their building.

At 9:03 a.m., the second plane struck the south tower between floors 77 and 85.

Eisenhardt was on the 74th floor when the plane hit.

"The south tower was hit, I was four floors below that fireball," said Eisenhardt. "I ran. I hit those staircases. I had about 20 stairs with nobody still not knowing what happened. Got to the ground, went out to the underground mall. Came up to the surface, looked back behind me and both towers were burning away."

The Johns Creek man only realized the totality of what happened, several hours later once he returned home, watching the horrific aftermath on television, amazed he survived.

Eisenhardt lost 19 friends who worked alongside him in the consulting division, the company lost 176 employees.

"I’ll never forget that feeling of 'I’m here', and it never goes away."