When you say the screen is black with white scattered across it, is it what people refer to as "snow" (an array of white, grey and black dots)? Also, is the sound just noise, or actual audio from a TV channel? If that's the case, and the audio is just noise, chances are there's nothing wrong with your TV and your cable still doesn't work.

Sometimes when power goes out during a storm power gets restored before cable. Are you sure that your cable signal is restored?

Electronics such as televisions, cable boxes, DVD players, etc, use microprocessor controls (like your computer) that can get caught up in erroneous modes and need to be "reset".

While it's difficult to say if that is the problems here, I'd recommend unplugging the AC line connections for both the television and cable box. Also, if you are using an HDMI connection between the two, unplug one end as well - sometimes the two units lose their handshake connection established for encryption and copy protection purposes.

Wait about 30 mins (longer than usually necessary but it still sometimes helps) and plug the AC line cords on both devices back in - without turning anything on. Reconnect the HDMI cable, turn on the television, and then turn on the cable box. Then, check and see if the problem may have been corrected.

And keep your fingers crossed!

U probably had a power surge and blew ur units control board. Time for homeowners insurance claim. I hope ur deductible is less than units value? $500 deduct and $499 tv? Oops.