The risk of epidemics and emerging or re-emerging diseases is rising and it can only be contained with prevention, early warning, and prompt management. Readiness exercises are critical in improving readiness, testing means & methods, master plans & procedures, but above all in training civil protection personnel. However, despite progress in information technology, feedback from recent exercises suggests that communication is a bottleneck for health early warning and response systems. This paper reports experience from the deployment of SAFE, a component-based system for health early warning, in a two-day earthquake readiness exercise on the island of Crete. SAFE employs satellite, radio, and wireless networks, geographic information systems, integration technology, and data mining to promptly identify and respond to a disease outbreak. In the acute phase of the disaster exercise, the mobile satellite-enabled coordination van of SAFE provided access to the health emergency information system via Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), but also conveyed sights and sounds of the disaster to decision makers. In post-disaster management, SAFE interoperability with local information systems intended health monitoring in the earthquake refugee camp as well as prompt identification and management of the outbreak, in collaboration with expert centers. The exercise identified significant strengths, but also weaknesses to be addressed by health early warning in public health. At the same time, participants and observers recognized that SAFE offers valuable tools to the "Epidemic Intelligence" paving the way towards advanced preparedness and response lifting communication barriers, promoting collaboration, and reducing isolation of the affected areas.