The kind of areas you have at the beginning of any continent is all up to the RNG and it's wacky whims. You'll always have that exact same range of cleared area around the settlement though. The settlement can appear pretty much anywhere on a continent, and in most region types (pretty sure it cant be in the Lava Flats or the Deep).
One of the things you want to do ASAP is find some Wind Shelters, usually as mission rewards, particularly from secret missions. Those are how you expand your clear area; place those on the edge of the stormy sections (so you're only one tile deep into it when you place them, it wont let you place them any other way), and do the mission that is then created there. Beat that, and the Wind Shelter is completed and will clear out areas around it. Buoys are used specifically to clear ocean tiles, but unlike shelters they have no range and only clear the tiles directly next to them (no mission necessary to activate though).
As for gifts, I'd say, give them when they become necessary. When you need to send someone out to do something, determine what exactly you're gonna have them do, figure out just who needs to be the one to do it, and THEN give them stuff as needed. Just giving them out randomly is probably a bad idea. Also, trying to get at least 3 of each of the main buildings (the ones that increase profession abilities) is important, as they affect every survivor that has that profession.
