ATLANTA — An Atlanta man who was in New York on a business trip on Sept. 11 remembers joining thousands of people fleeing lower Manhattan after planes struck the World Trade Center.

Matt O’Brien was evacuated from a building across from the World Trade Center and made his way toward the Hudson River with strangers as the attacks unfolded.

“We were out by the water when the first one came down and we just kind of covered ourselves with our shirts to keep ourselves from inhaling all of the debris that had come down,” O’Brien said.

He began walking north as communication became difficult across the city.

“It was just chaos; the telephones, everything, you just couldn’t get through,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien eventually reached a rental car office where a line stretched out the door. He remembers strangers helping one another find ways out of the city.

“Everybody that walked out of that rental car place just called out where they were headed, and if you wanted to go that way you just got a ride,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said he initially tried to forget some of what he experienced that day, but doing so also meant overlooking the kindness he witnessed.

“But then in forgetting that you forget all of the good, it was just unbelievable, that’s what I focus on now,” O’Brien said.

He said memories of Sept. 11 still return when attention turns back to the attacks.

“Just whenever there’s a big focus on it again, and then the news comes on and all of those thoughts come back again. It just doesn’t go away,” O’Brien said.

WSB Radio’s Ashley Simmons & Graham Carroll contributed to this story.