When a series of dangerous, wind-driven fires broke out in the Los Angeles area on Tuesday, Mayor Karen Bass was on the other side of the world, part of a delegation sent by President Biden to Ghana for the inauguration of his new president.

Ms. Bass, a former Democratic congresswoman who became mayor in late 2022, did not return to Los Angeles until Wednesday afternoon, when more than 1,000 homes had already burned and 100,000 people across the region were forced to flee their homes.

The mayor’s absence has drawn criticism from some Angelenos. Many said authorities did not adequately warn about the likelihood of devastating fires, even though weather forecasts this week predicted extreme danger.

On Thursday last week, the National Weather Service in Los Angeles began warning of “extreme fire weather conditions.” By Sunday, the warnings had become even more dire – “rapid fire growth and extreme behavior with any fire outbreak.”

But Mayor Bass posted her first warning about the storm on Monday on X while she was already in Ghana. Her office didn’t send out a news release about the fire danger until Tuesday morning around 11 a.m., after the Pacific Palisades fire had already broken out.

“There was no preparation. There was no thought here,” said Michael Gonzales, 47, whose home burned in Pacific Palisades, an affluent neighborhood overlooking the Pacific Ocean. His family of five stayed at a hotel in Santa Monica on Wednesday as they decided where they would stay.

Mr. Gonzales, a lawyer, said he believed Mayor Bass made a poor decision to remain overseas even as forecasters warned of the most dangerous fire conditions in more than a decade.

“It was a complete breakdown of leadership, and it starts in the mayor’s office,” he said in an interview.

In her first news conference since returning to Los Angeles on Wednesday, Mayor Bass defended her administration when asked about criticism of the city’s response to the fire. She said the disaster was the result of months of low rain and wind, something the city hadn’t seen in at least 14 years.

“We must resist any attempt to tear us apart,” she said.

Ms. Bass said she returned home as quickly as possible after the fires ravaged Pacific Palisades and other parts of Southern California.

“I took the quickest route back, which included a military plane,” she said.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power filled all 114 available water reservoirs and storage facilities before the storm, including those in the Palisades area, said Janisse Quiñones, the department’s executive director. Without aerial water supply, heavy use of fire hydrants has depleted the tanks and crews are now working to refill them, she said.

Rick Caruso, a real estate developer who lost to Ms. Bass in the 2022 mayoral race, said he deployed a team of private firefighters to Pacific Palisades on Tuesday night to help demolish a large outdoor retail space he owns. and some of them to protect nearby houses. All night long, he said, they told him that water was scarce.

City officials confirmed that water tanks were empty during the intense firefight early Wednesday in Pacific Palisades as demand rose to four times normal for 15 hours. They suggested that the system was not designed to deliver that much water in such a short period of time.

“I don’t think there is any excuse for the lack of water in the hydrants,” Mr. Caruso said. “This was very predictable,” he said, pointing to forecasts that predicted the devastating storm.

Mr. Caruso, who served two terms as president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said it would take time to explain why firefighters had difficulty getting enough water to fight the blaze.

“This is a massive failure of epic proportions,” he said. “Knowing the storm is coming and then leaving and not rushing back. Leadership is important and the first thing is to be present.”

Isabelle Taft contributed to reporting.