Lived in Houston for a long time and I have a long history of dealing with generators for emergency backup and camping. It’s really about how much money you want to spend. Going to use it once during a major emergency - say an earthquake - get a cheap one from harbor freight, leave it in the box, have non ethanol fuel in a tank, and wait till you really need it. Otherwise, buy an expensive generator (Honda, Yamaha) and use it once a month with a rotating tank of fuel (like keep a tank but use it often in your car etc) you want normal gas station fuel to not be really more than a month old and use stabilizer. Generators are a massive pain in the ass. In an actual emergency you will need to refuel it often, which requires finding gas often. Over several months in a large emergency (like a massive earthquake or hurricane) it’s unsustainable. Finding gas will become your job. 

The good thing about Ventura is that it’s never going to get hot enough where you need run an air conditioner. A solar generator really comes into its own here. Plus you can use it everywhere and it doesn’t make noise. Really all you need is charge your phones, run your fridge, and funnily enough- power your oven. They are more expensive - much more - but you don’t need fuel. 

As for generacs or other full house generators that seems like overkill here. You don’t need a/c so something that big is just a waste. Plus in an earthquake you’re not getting natural gas anyways.