I remember one time a long time ago, there was a hurricane that hit Central America and it resulted in 20-30 foot waves on the West End. At the time I had a long term rental right before (where Brimhole is now) but back then David hadn't yet come to Negril so the property was vacant.
Quite a bit of the west end ocean front property was vacant then & if some of those builders saw this storm, believe me, they wouldn't have built so close to the sea as they have.
The water was washing up across the road on the west end. Just before the waves got really huge, there was a strange kind of yellow rim around the sun. Back in those times we didn't have internet access, TV access, etc. in the west end. But you could tell something was up! with the weather. The waves just kept getting bigger and bigger. Long time west end Negril residents hadn't seen anything like that for something like 30 years they said. And the time was about I would say, 1974 or 1973.
I personally love the west end when the waves get really big -- though I must admit sometimes, sleeping at Citronella and hearing the crashing of the waves, it was kind of scary -- like thinking that the entire house could possibly be washed away during the night.
Quite a bit of the other properties would have to evacuate their guests & move either their rooms or move them to other places. The synchronization of these moves seemed at least, to be very much a cooperation amongst the west end hotels.
The properties with the "blow holes" -- like Citronella, Brimhole, Awee Maway have their respective blow holes spewing up a huge amount of water when the waves get really big .