In the Middle ages Kats originally prospered as "Suburchdijke" the name alluding to connections with the nearby city of Souburg. The local inhabitants are referred to locally as "katsenaers" and 150 of them were drowned in flooding caused by a great storm on 5 November 1530, which engulfed the whole island, then in 1532 the Elizabethflood swept away all the remaining buildings. Poldering Noord Beveland (the process the Dutch invented to reclaim land from the sea) did not start again until 1598 - the villages of Colijnsplaat and Kats were both built on estates at right angles to each other.