Catastrophes (floods, earthquakes, industrial accidents) require exceptional logistic, health, psychological, educational and social intervention in the areas they occur. In this paper, we present the results of a study carried out on University students in post-emergency conditions in the city of L'Aquila, Italy, two years after the devastating 2009 earthquake, in order to individuate the consequences that this catastrophic event had on student motivation and academic performance. This paper aims at outlining aspects of learning and studying in critical situations and defining a teaching intervention model to be adopted under such conditions.