Zombie outbreak in Louisianna?

Incident: I live in a very rural area surrounded by miles and miles of woodland that almost anything could hide in. Recently, I was driving home with an aunt of mine when we saw military/police helicopters combing the area with searchlights about 10 miles from our home. They seemed to be moving in a grid formation.
For the entire night, helicopters were patrolling the area. I expected to find out what was going on from the local TV station, but nothing was mentioned about the huge search. There was absolutely no media coverage whatsoever. A neighbor of ours who is part of the military was then "deployed" to Iraq. Is it possible he was an FVZA agent? Also, old-timers living in isolated cabins have talked of some "creature" moving around.
Over the next few days, we heard sporadic amounts of gunfire coming from inside the area swamps and the dense woodland to the north of our house. It is possible that it was hunters, but the chopper sweep and gunfire seemed connected, especially since they occurred in the same general area.
The story would end there but for recent events. In the last few months, people have been going missing. Armed "search parties" consisting of police squads have been looking for them, but none of the missing have turned up. In a lake near Alexandria, a man was found dead in the water, with bludgeon and cut wounds all over his body. The case is classified as "unsolved." Meanwhile, the nearby military base (40 miles away) has launched numerous live-fire exercises in the area around Alexandria, especially around the Air Force Bombing range.
Do you believe that we are dealing with vampires, zombies, or werewolves? I have taken the precaution of keeping a machete, shotgun, and pistol in the bedroom where a majority of us sleep. For more information, you can read the area newspaper, "The Town Talk."
[Comments from Dr. Pecos: I'm leaning toward zombies here, especially in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We knew there was a decent possibility of a zombie outbreak after the hurricane. However, the bludgeoned body in the lake is puzzling. Perhaps it's unrelated. As for the old-timers, I would need more details about what they saw before attempting to draw any conclusions.
The FVZA is defunct, so the presence of helicopters and gunfire suggests to me that military is trying to defuse the situation best it can. If they had asked me, I would have told them to lose the helicopters, but no one has contacted me. What do I know? I only devoted my life's work to tracking and exterminating the undead. Sorry, I'm ranting.
If you have any links to related stories in "The Town Talk," please send them along.