[Catalyst] Graceful handling of database failure

[Mitchell K. Jackson]

Good afternoon,

Is there a graceful way for a catalyst app to handle when the database
server goes away?  If this happens while a process is holding open a
database connection it's already been using, there's not even a
database error to the log. The only error is "read data timeout in 40
seconds", and an error 500 to the web browser.

I would like my app to be able to deliver a  more useful error to the
end user, such as "Lost database connection."  If I can retain control
of the app in this event, I'll have it send me an sms for good
measure.  Any ideas how I could go about this?

Regards,

/Mitchell K. Jackson