stilt

Houses and businesses are built on stilts because rains regularly lead to monthslong floods.

From a distance, it resembles a bird blind — or perhaps the concrete stilts that lift houses in informal settlements over volcanic hillsides around Quito, the Ecuadorean capital 20 miles to the east.

In the distance, a shabby shack on stilts comes into view.

Their home is on stilts near the Trinity River, and they felt relief when the water began to recede on Thursday.

The carcasses of half-built carriages hover above the factory floor, propped up on stilts, the veins of their wiring dangling loose.