San Francisco (KCBS) – A panel of experts speaking at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco today said California will suffer a disaster bigger in scale than Hurricane Katrina if the state doesn’t act quickly to improve its flood control systems.

The Delta and the Central Valley are at grave risk for calamity, and Sacramento could be the next New Orleans, according to UC Berkeley engineering professor Dr. Raymond Seed.

“California’s in bigger trouble than people realize,” said Seed. “Our state, as best as we can estimate, has about a quarter of the nation’s flood risk, more than Louisiana and the next several states combined.”

The recently approved bond measures to improve the water infrastructure will help, but they’re not enough, said Les Harder, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources. “We’re not going to get out of this crisis tomorrow or the next decade. This will be continuing with us because our population is growing and we’re putting them in the flood plain,” he said.

The experts spoke as part of the Commonwealth Club’s special month-long series on water issues.