The safety operation of power grid faces challenge of natural disaster, operation accident, and external attack, which usually results in large area blackout event and threatens public safety. This paper comprehensively reviewed the emergency response and recovery method for large area outage of power grid. The emergency plan and optimal method, risk evaluation, warning, emergency disposal and recovery method were summarized in the literature. The key aspects of common and special classification for large area blackout, the corresponding main risks, and emergency procedure in the emergency plans were extracted. Meanwhile, the risk evaluation, warning procedure and disposal method for large area blackout were retrospected. Finally, the emergency recovery algorithm, model, and strategies were summarized. The work could provide theoretical and technical support for the procedure of emergency plan, response, warning, and recovery of large area blackout events.