Solr connector with SolrCloud throws an uncaught runtime exception when it can't connect to zookeeper

java.lang.RuntimeException: java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException: Could not connect to ZooKeeper localhost:2181 within 60000 ms
	at org.apache.solr.common.cloud.SolrZkClient.<init>(SolrZkClient.java:130)
	at org.apache.solr.common.cloud.SolrZkClient.<init>(SolrZkClient.java:88)
	at org.apache.solr.common.cloud.ZkStateReader.<init>(ZkStateReader.java:148)
	at org.apache.solr.client.solrj.impl.CloudSolrServer.connect(CloudSolrServer.java:147)
	at org.apache.solr.client.solrj.impl.CloudSolrServer.request(CloudSolrServer.java:173)
	at org.apache.manifoldcf.agents.output.solr.HttpPoster$SolrPing.process(HttpPoster.java:1315)
	at org.apache.manifoldcf.agents.output.solr.HttpPoster$StatusThread.run(HttpPoster.java:1208)
Caused by: java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException: Could not connect to ZooKeeper localhost:2181 within 60000 ms
	at org.apache.solr.common.cloud.ConnectionManager.waitForConnected(ConnectionManager.java:173)
	at org.apache.solr.common.cloud.SolrZkClient.<init>(SolrZkClient.java:127)
	... 6 more