Well. that explains what looks to be a peeling away of the rippled skin of the pole where it meets the base. Where it has rusted away, you can actually stick a pencil up under that rippled part for a couple of inches. However, the 'tube' appears to be solid, so I'm going to try to do some cosmetic work on the rusted out rippled 'skin' and assume the pole will withstand the winds in our valley. Thank you very much for the info.