Rush to Fix Quake-Damaged Undersea Cables

In this WSJ article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704893604576199952421569210.ht... or http://on.wsj.com/gaPk8V This caught my eye : About half of the existing cables running across the Pacific are damaged ... It that realistic ? That seems like much more damage than anything I have heard or seen. Regards Marshall