Biohazard Cleanup Near Pine Lakes Katy, TX

The City of Katy is a small city of 21,894 people in the 2020 Census that sits centered at the meeting point of three counties — Harris, Fort Bend and Waller — west of Houston.

Katy was first formally settled in the mid-1890s as a railroad town on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, and it took its name in January 1896 from the railroad's nickname, 'the K-T.'

Katy was not incorporated until 1945, half a century after the railroad arrived.

Rice farming on the fertile Buffalo Bayou floodplain built early Katy — Buffalo Bayou itself has its source near the city — and old rice dryers still stand in town; the Katy Rice Harvest Festival is held every October.

Construction of Interstate 10 through Katy in 1966 put the rice-farming town squarely in the path of Houston's suburban growth.

Katy's population rose from 14,102 in 2010 to 21,894 in 2020, and the Census Bureau estimated about 28,373 residents by 2025.

The city proper is only a small part of 'Katy': about 391,852 people lived in the wider Katy area within the Katy Independent School District's boundaries in 2020.

Katy Independent School District, organized in 1918, now enrolls more than 85,700 students.

Katy High School, opened in 1898 to serve the children of local rice farmers and carrying the motto 'Home of Champions,' has won nine Texas state football championships, most recently in 2020.

Katy High School counts NFL quarterback Andy Dalton among its alumni.