FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- Many Floridians could be without electricity for weeks, authorities said Tuesday, a day after Hurricane Wilma plowed across the peninsula.About 6 million people in the Sunshine State were without power, Gov. Jeb Bush said."That's by a factor of five or six, the amount of people who didn't have power with [Hurricane] Katrina in the Gulf states region," Bush said. Florida Power & Light said it could be a month before service is fully restored to all areas. (Watch as Wilma slams into Florida -- 3:52) (Full story)The power outages leave millions of Florida residents lacking other basic necessities, such as food, hot water and fuel.Longtime residents and veterans of past hurricanes appeared surprised by Wilma, which roared ashore early Monday with 125 mph winds, storm surge flooding and heavy rain. (Watch preps for Wilma in Massachusetts -- 1:44)"We've lived here 37 years and we've never had a hurricane like this," Broward County resident Paul Kramer, 71, told The Associated Press. "We didn't expect this. This one got our attention." A firm that does catastrophe modeling for the insurance industry estimated insured losses from Wilma at between $6 billion and $9 billion -- a figure behind only Hurricane Katrina and 1992's Hurricane Andrew in terms of insured losses. ( Full story)"It will be days or weeks before we are back to normal," Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez told the AP.In hard-hit southeast Florida, officials advised people to boil tap water before using it because of broken water lines. Miami-Dade Emergency Management spokesman Louie Fernandez said his county's first priority is, "How can we get aid as quickly as possible to our residents?"He said he was getting enough help from federal emergency officials.Florida Power & Light said about 6,000 workers -- many from other states -- were repairing power lines downed by Wilma, which was still spinning in the Atlantic.As of 5 p.m. ET, the storm's center was about 205 miles (330 kilometers) south-southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.Maximum sustained winds were near 85 mph, and meteorologists anticipated additional weakening.Moving at 53 mph (85 kph), Wilma was not expected to make landfall again, although it could brush southern Newfoundland on Wednesday and would continue to contribute to a nor'easter along the upper Eastern Seaboard, forecasters said. (Full story)Seventeen deaths were blamed on the hurricane, including six people killed in Florida, four in Mexico and at least seven who died in Haiti a week ago in related flooding. (Watch how one Floridian survived Wilma -- 2:24)'We survived it'Despite Wilma's power, most buildings in south Florida appeared to escape major structural damage, said officials in several areas.On Florida's west coast, about 20 miles north of where Wilma's center came ashore, Naples Mayor Bill Barnett said many trees were downed and power and water were out, but homes and buildings appeared to have weathered the storm surprisingly well. (Watch Wilma's destruction of mobile homes -- 1:31)"We survived it," Barnett said. In Key West, where 120 mph winds blew for two hours and a storm surge left much of low-lying island under 3 to 5 feet of water, most of the flooding had receded by Tuesday. Officials estimated 60 percent of the homes had been flooded. Cancun tourists get helpInternational tourists stranded by Wilma in the resort of Cancun on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula began leaving Tuesday on Mexicana Airlines.Eight hundred people boarded five flights from Cancun to Mexico City, said airline spokesman Adolfo Crespo. (Watch thousands of tourists trying to get home -- 1:15) "We're going to be sending four flights tomorrow," he said. "Then we're going to be playing it by ear."Mexicana was the sole airline flying from the airport and can fly only during daylight because the storm rendered the site's radar inoperable, Crespo said.Earlier, hundreds of tourists were turned back at the Cancun airport before it opened. (Full story)The State Department Tuesday defended its efforts to help between 10,000 and 15,000 stranded American tourists."Our priority ... is to provide them assistance and to get them home quickly and safely," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said. He said the United States also was working with Mexican authorities to ensure supplies and medical attention were available at about 180 shelters where about 1,300 Americans were waiting to evacuate.In a message to the stranded Americans, Ereli said, "We're out there. Don't worry. We're going to get to you. And we're doing a lot that you may not see."Ereli said 23 U.S. consular officers were scrambling to reach those stranded in hotels and shelters.The United States already had helped 1,900 Americans get out of Cancun by bus to nearby Merida, where the airport is open, he said.CNN's Miles O'Brien and Elise Labott contributed to this report.Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.