Can I avoid Terramorphous' Blackhole/Wormhole Thresher attack?

Today I met Terramorphous' Wormhole thresher attack. It is not pleasant; we took constant damage, were unable to move fast enough to escape the pull of the vortex (he pulls you in like a wormhole thresher) and he didn't summon any tentacles. His attack animation (and the gravity pull) stopped just after our Fight for your Life timers started to run out (it was extremely long, a minute or two), and with no tentacles to kill for second winds we all quickly died.

Is there anything we can do to avoid/escape from his blackhole attack? "Die and pray for a tentacle to kill" didn't work so well.